Reprisals Unexpected, Repayment Most Terrible
by Shadow Master
Summary: (BtVS/MCU/GoW/Asura's Wrath/Claymore/SF/Others) Heroes. We call people that because they put themselves in harms way to protect us. However heroes are not immune to failure. Or REVENGE!
1. Chapter 1

"Reprisals Unexpected, Repayment Most Terrible"

(BtVS/Marvel Cinematic Universe/God of War/Asura's Wrath/Claymore/Street Fighter/Others)

By Shadow Master

Email: ryley[underscore]breen

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the copyrighted materials contained herein. They are the rightful property of their respective creators and/or associated companies. I make no profit from this whatsoever and I have no intention of changing this at any point in the future. I write because it's fun and because there are those who enjoy reading my works. Therefore I would greatly appreciate it if no legal action was taken against me. I can promise you that even if you drain me dry of money it won't cover even a tenth of your legal fees.

Note 1: I got motivated to write this in the weeks leading up to 'Avengers Engame' and began to wonder what might happen if Thanos wound up killing the precious people of four Scoobies that had secrets that'd remained known only to them for twenty years. Secrets locked away because they were afraid of what might happen if they weren't sealed away. However with the deaths of those with the strongest connection to their hearts…fury will overcome fear. Might just be a one off or it might

Note 2: Positive reviews will be gratefully received, constructive criticism will be considered but not necessarily acted upon and negative/bashing reviews will be treated like the worthless collection of words they truly are.

Now cue the ominous and violence implying background music…

_**Reprisals Unexpected, Repayment Most Terrible**_

_**The Scottish Isles **_

_**Castle Headquarters of the New Watcher's Council**_

_**April 28, 2017 **_

_**Xander's POV**_

"Hurry up, Xander!" Dawn yelled from the bedroom even as he worked to finish cleaning up in the bathroom.

"I'm almost done! Keep your panties on!" he yelled back even as he worked to finish trimming his goatee.

"You don't have to be so obsessive about it!" Dawn yelled knowing what he was doing. "It looked fine last night."

"I'm not going down there with a messy beard!" he yelled back without losing the precision of his trimming.

He knew it was silly but it was also a mark of how he'd grown since the fall of Sunnydale and became one of the founders of the New Watcher's Council. It'd been another move to distance himself from the person he'd been and take one more step towards who he wanted to be and over a decade later he had to admit it'd done its job. He'd modeled it after one a famous actor had grown for a prominent military role in a movie and it looked DAMN good on him. Since then he'd taken as much care to maintain it as most of the girls did their hair that, of course, was a regular source of teasing for him. He took it as karma for all the bad jokes he'd told and the times he'd let his emotions screw things up.

It took another five minutes before he was satisfied with it and with a few quick comb strokes he left the bathroom, ready to face this year's Council Assembly. It wasn't anything crucial or ground breaking but rather a gathering of friends, loved ones and comrades in arms to celebrate another apocalypse averted. As much as they were all united in their desire to fight and protect the Earth against both supernatural as well as demonic threats, they'd known from the beginning that they had to celebrate life whenever possible. In the war they were fighting losses were inevitable and, whether they happened because someone sacrificed themselves or were cruelly taken from this world by random chance, the grief was all the same. The only thing that gave them the strength to keep on marching forward were the memories they had the good times and the belief that, if they held on long enough, the light of hope would come again.

Or maybe he was just being a LITTLE overdramatic.

Stepping into the bedroom proper he beheld a sight that never failed to make him smile and wonder how he'd managed to be so lucky in this way but have bad luck everywhere else. Standing near the door to the bedroom with a somewhat impatient look on her face was Dawn Summers-Harris, his wife. It'd taken her five years to wear him down and convince him that a relationship between the two of them could work but ten years ago she'd gone all in and popped the question before he could. In that moment he'd listened to his heart and gave her the only answer he could.

Since then, for all the troubles being members of the Council dumped in their laps, the two of them had been given more than enough reasons to be happy.

"About time! Let's go before we miss Buffy's speech," Dawn said, reaching out to grab him by the hand and pull him towards the door.

Ah.

He'd forgotten about that, or rather his mind had done everything it could to repress the knowledge.

It'd become customary at every assembly for a senior member to give a speech to the newer people that was meant to be respectful towards those that'd fallen the previous year and inspire those who remained to keep fighting in the year to come. Even he'd given one once, though it'd taken a lot more than picturing everyone in their underwear for him to keep from devolving into a stuttering mess. The others had been much more dignified and inspiring but, with Buffy's turn now up, he wasn't going to get his hopes up. Odds were the oldest living Slayer would begin well enough, make a few odd analogies before finally using quotes from movies to finish things up regardless of whether they fit together right. He'd made a token effort, along with Robin Wood, during the planning of this year's assembly to suggest that perhaps someone else give the speech but it'd failed. In a rare show of sisterly solidarity Dawn had supported the idea that her elder sister be allowed to give the speech, citing that her sibling had matured quite a bit since her Sunnydale days.

Which was true but maturity didn't mean that she could give a decent speech.

He'd matured quite a bit but that didn't mean he could do advanced quantum mechanics or something equally outside his normal field of expertise.

Unfortunately Dawn remained optimistic and so, as a good husband should, he kept his doubts to himself while being as supportive as he could convincingly be.

Walking down the hallways of the castle that'd become their home for a good while and the fresh start the Council needed after the old one's HQ had gotten blown up, he let his gaze pass over everything. Paintings of people and places as well as keepsakes of past victories were spread about, as well as the result of every female Scooby and Sunnydale survivor's interior decorating choices. In their defense they listened to him when it came to strategic or tactical design options in order to make sure that they could defend the castle if it came under siege but the rest was all them. Honestly it was about what you'd expect from a multi-millionaire who'd bought a castle then tricked it out with every luxury and fashionable accessory imaginable. Personally he preferred function over appearance but he wasn't stupid enough to badmouth the choices of women who were perfectly capable of kicking his ass if they wanted to.

"So do you know where Jessie and Joy are?" he asked, changing the topic of conversation to something a little more pleasant.

"No, I haven't seen them since-" Dawn began to reply only to be drowned out by a scream of fright getting closer and closer every second.

The source became visible in short order in the form of a six year old girl with short blonde hair dressed in a cute looking pink dress that of course was the height of fashion for someone her age. She was running like the hounds of hell were behind her but, since none of the alarms, technological or mystical, were blaring, it wasn't a case of literal hellhounds. The cause showed up about ten steps behind the girl in the form of an eight year old boy with messy light brown hair who had hands covered in disgusting gunk with the clear intent of smearing it all over the girl. Dressed in a simple white dress shirt and black pants, the kid must've been at least a little careful since there weren't too many gunk stains on his clothes.

"FREEZE YOU TWO!" Dawn bellowed, causing both children to freeze in their tracks.

Understandable because, if there was one thing that every child knew it was that when your mother raised her voice like that, you damn well listened. When little Jessie had been born he and Dawn had talked things out before deciding that she would be the disciplinary and responsible parent while he would be the one to make life fun. Buffy, of course, didn't like it and asked why they didn't split the disciplining and responsible behavior between the two of them.

Dawn just rattled off every irresponsible thing he'd ever done as well as evidence of is sporadic bouts of disciplined behavior, starting with the Summers family arrival in Sunnydale to the present.

He'd only been a little offended by the truth but conceded that it was better to play to ones strengths and succeed instead of try something new only to fail miserably.

"Now would one of you tell me what's going on? Joy?" she asked, turning her eyes to her daughter.

"Jessie was gonna get me with that icky stuffy and ruin my dress!" Joy replied angrily before glaring at her brother for such an unforgivable plan.

"I wasn't really! Honest!" Jessie exclaimed, clearly trying to weasel his way out of the situation. "I was just scaring her, that's all."

Typical sibling behavior, especially when Joy tended to get the lion's share of the attention around the castle AND get away with stuff Jessie couldn't because she was younger.

"And you managed to dirty up your nice clothes BEFORE your aunt Buffy's speech," Dawn pointed out, making it clear their son wouldn't be getting any leeway from her.

Looking down at his clothes he could tell Jessie was trying to come up with some way of downplaying the damage or even figuring out a way to wipe the stains out without making things worse.

_A little too early for that, little man._ he thought, remembering similar moments in his own childhood. _It'll be another three years at least before you'll know enough to pull something like that off._

"Xander, take Joy down to the assembly hall," Dawn said, walking up to Jessie before grabbing the eight year old boy painfully by the right ear. "I'll take Jessie to the nearest washroom to see if we can salvage this at all."

"Will do, wife-o-mine," he said holding out his hand to his youngest. "Let's go get some good seats, Joy."

"Way at the back? Where no one'll know if we take a nap?" Joy asked, sounding innocent but with a twinkle in her eyes.

"Exactly!" he replied with pride at his youngest learning some of his lessons.

"Don't nap too long," Dawn said before going around the corner. "I nominated you to give out the awards right after Buffy's speech."

Damn.

And here he was hoping to sleep through all the boring stuff until dinner was served.

As much as he might have matured and grown into being the director of operations for the Council, there were some personality quirks and habits that not even God Almighty could get rid of. One of them was avoiding any work he defined as boring or aggravating while the other was getting some shuteye whenever the opportunity presented itself. One of the lessons he'd learned in Sunnydale was that demonic and supernatural forces could strike at any time so you had to grab the essentials whenever you could; those essentials, of course, being food, rest and, when necessary, medical help. Naturally the more responsible members of the Council often berated him or at least were exasperated when they found him napping but most didn't make too big of a fuss. As long as he did his job and could be relied upon when the shit hit the fan, they were willing to let the rest slide.

It was a short trip to the assembly hall with a few encounters with people he knew or recognized from past assemblies. Those he knew well he greeted informally like all friends did while those he knew only in passing he respectfully said hello before moving on. When they finally arrived at the assembly hall he could see that most of the seats were more than halfway full with more people trickling in as time passed. Looking for the best spot, he was grateful that there appeared to be a corner with four unoccupied seats so he gently pulled Joy in their direction. Once there he reluctantly chose the seat closest to the isle so when they called him up to give out the awards he would have an easier time of it. Joy naturally took a seat next to him but, like most kids, soon became bored at having to just sit around with nothing to do.

So he took out something he'd been saving for later, a portable gaming system loaded with thirty games that hopefully had at least a few that Joy would get hooked on and keep her entertained.

"You know a good book would be better," a voice said to his right that he knew almost as well as he knew his own.

Turning towards the source he beheld two beauties that were both well dressed for the occasion as well as very much still in love with each other despite the rough patches they'd been through, Willow and Kennedy.

The former would always be his just as he would always be hers, even if it was only in the familial sense, but the latter… he did his best to remain civil with her. He'd never liked Kennedy's spoiled rich girl attitude and while her time as a Slayer had helped water that down with a hefty dose of humility, it still popped up from time to time. During those times he drew on his nearly lifetime familial love of Willow to still his tongue and keep him from saying anything that'd result in being on the receiving end of 'The Look'.

"Books are good… I guess," Joy said, looking up from the gaming system.

This, of course, caused Willow to smile at the sight of yet another potential student of the written word.

"If you stack them high enough you can get to the Chunka Chocolate Chip Cookies easier," Joy said, finishing her statement before returning to the game she was playing.

The smile shifted from one of pride to one of rueful exasperation.

His best bud should've realized that Joy had half his DNA in her so of course the littlest blonde was more concerned with food than expanding her mind with a book. He didn't expect it'd last forever since Dawn liked to read the heavy stuff from time to time so it was inevitable that Joy would follow suit eventually. Jessie, though, his little partner in pranks, was going to need a kick in the pants every now and again to make sure he did well in school. Already some of his teachers at the elementary school were sending home notes about problems listening during class, as well as goofing off, but neither he nor his wife were too worried. Kids would be kids and, rather than try to force them to grow up quicker, it was better to ease them into it because everyone knew that adult life was more complicated than a kid's life.

"It was a close one this year," he said, referring to the apocalypse they'd managed to avert.

"A little too close. If I hadn't managed to figure out those hieroglyphs in time, the sarcophagus would've popped and he'd have come out," Willow said, echoing the stress she'd felt at the time briefly. "Those clan Acabana guys are nuts for wanting to bring him back."

"In their defense they've pretty much been conditioned from birth for several centuries to see him as their leader and a god," he said, remembering what they'd learned of the desert tribe. "That's not something you can just throw off at the drop of a hat."

"Maybe not but things are gonna be tense for the next couple of months being on the lookout for their payback," Kennedy said, sounding like she wasn't looking forward to it. "No way their entire clan was in that pyramid when it collapsed."

"Maybe not but even if there were survivors it couldn't be very many," he said, trying to stay optimistic. "Not enough for a frontal assault. All we need is to up our electric and mystic security a few notches and we'll be fine."

"I've got a few ideas about that but it'll take some research to make sure they'll work," Willow said, sounding indeed like the gears in her head had been turning. "I'll wait until after the yearly assembly is over before doing anything, though. This is the one time of the year everyone is in one place so we should do what we can to enjoy it."

"True," he said before noticing movement around one of the auditorium doors. "I think someone forgot to tell my better half about that, though."

Coming in through the door was Dawn, who was still pulling little Jessie along, with the latter looking mostly submissive but with a slight twitch of annoyance that you had to really look to see. From what he could tell it looked like his wife had mostly managed to clean the kid up but he could still spot some of the stains on the kid's good clothes. That was going to irritate Dawn for as long as their son had them on. Hopefully once they got to the less formal parts of the yearly assembly Jessie would be allowed to slip into his usual 'hang out around the castle' clothes. As much as it might have been hammered into his head that formal attire was necessary when in the presence of important people, he'd never felt fully comfortable in it. When you got right down to it he was a laid back kind of guy when there was no world saving to do so being extra stuffy just wasn't for him.

"Well, I've cleaned him up the best I could but I'd need more time than we had to get it all," Dawn said before pointing at the empty seat next to the wall. "You plunk yourself in that seat, young man, and don't even THINK about messing with your sister again. Try anything and I'm adding another week to your 'no video games' boycott. Understand?"

"Yes, mom," Jessie said, trotting slowly to the designated seat before sitting down.

"But if you get better than a B plus on your next math test I'll talk to Mom about letting you off early," he said, deciding to try to brighten the little man's mood a little more. "A B plus and no less. You got that?"

Jessie looked a little conflicted but that was the whole point.

Math was the one subject his son absolutely loathed and unfortunately that mean the little guy wasn't doing the greatest in it at the moment. Both he and Dawn had tried to help him with it, with Willow chipping in whenever she had the spare time, but it never really seemed to click with the eight year old. Hopefully with the motivation of getting access to his video games earlier would be incentive enough to go all in with his studying.

Looking at Dawn, he could tell that she knew what he was doing as well as why but there was still a slight glint of disapproval but he'd expected that. As much as the youngest Summers lady might've hated her mother and older sister for being so O.C.D. with rules and responsibility growing up, Dawn now knew why they were necessary. Setting limits and making sure your kids respected them made sure they didn't get too wild down the road and get into trouble that was potentially lethal.

It definitely explained his and Willow's childhoods, considering neither of their parents had set any real limits up for them that stuck. As a result they wound up fighting demons for more than twenty years when most sane people would've moved someplace 'safe' and ignored the whole mess. Still, he doubted anyone in the room regretted signing on to fight and, considering the number of times they'd averted the end of the world, it'd definitely been worth it. He still missed those that didn't make it, who'd died either by murder or by something else, but he'd like to think that they'd approve of what the New Council had accomplished since its founding.

Unlike the Old Council, they'd done the best they could to improve relations not just with the various human countries around the world but also the neutral or benign demon clans. Most of the time it was just non-aggression pacts or treaties where resources were provided in exchange for protection from the more hostile demonic species, but it was more than what Travers' kind had ever done. He'd also worked with Willow over the years to update both the research division as well as the armory so that every Slayer would have what they needed to both save the day and survive saving it. While survival rates for the Slayer army still weren't good enough to guarantee they'd see retirement, the girls now at least had a choice about whether or not to fight at all.

All in all a massive improvement from the old status quo that Travers insisted remain in place, despite overwhelming evidence that it needed to change.

_Bet the old man would bust a blood vessel if saw what'd become of his 'traditional institution',_ he thought with a grin as he watched Buffy walk towards the podium. _He'd definitely have a few things to say if he found up Buffy was leading the entire thing. A traditional Slayer she is NOT._

Everyone in the room noticed Buffy's location immediately taking their seats and quieting down. Personally he hoped that the bottle blonde, something she hadn't ditched even after twenty years, had the sense to keep things short and sweet. Sure, speeches like this were usually very elegant and inspiring but that just wasn't Buffy when you got right down to it. Better that his personal hero kept to her strengths instead of trying to be something she wasn't for the sake of appearances.

"Welcome everyone to the fourteenth annual Council Assembly," Buffy said, apparently deciding to start off with the niceties first. "Glad to see so many faces, especially coming off of the yearly apocalypses across the world. I'm happy to report that this year we've managed to come out better than any of the previous fifteen years!"

This got a round of applause but it was entirely warranted. Under the old management casualties and injuries were considered 'acceptable losses' and 'collateral damage', with very little done to reduce it. Whenever a lower ranking member submitted an idea to improve things they were either brushed off with a 'we will consider it and get back to you' or they were outright denied with the reason being the idea conflicted with one of the Old Council's proud traditions. Sometimes he felt as if the Old Council were their own worst enemies at the very least and at most might've had at least one spy in their midst subtly tweaking things in favor of the demonic.

"That said, like any battle, we have suffered losses and we have felt pain," Buffy said, taking on a more somber and respectful tone. "Some people who were here last year aren't here now. Whether it's due to death or a debilitating injury that requires they stay in the med-center, it serves as a reminder that this fight takes its toll on us every year. Nevertheless, we fight it and give it everything we have for one single thing: hope.

"Hope of a better tomorrow. Hope that our children will be able to grow up without having to worry about the monsters in their closets or the sky raining fire all of a sudden," Buffy said with rising energy and passion. "Hope that one day the fight will be over. That is what gives us the strength to fight and when necessary make the ultimate sacrifice to protect those left behind. It is this hope that dispels the fear the enemy uses against us and proves to them that humanity isn't just an all you can eat buffet!"

He had to smile at this since the speech was going a lot better than he had thought it would. In fact he had to wonder if someone else had written it and just handed it off to Buffy to read at the podium. He'd wait for a polite moment to inquire later on but for the time being he'd accept the possibility that she'd come up with it entirely on her own.

"With every year the New Council not only survives but also saves the world, we prove to the members of the old status quo that change doesn't have to be a bad thing. It can be a WONDERFUL thing that lets us make some actual headway against our enemies," Buffy said, just shy of yelling her words into the microphone. "I'm not saying we'll all get to live to see the end of this war. Maybe it'll only be our grandchildren who get to see it. Even if it is, though, wouldn't it be worth it to fight for such a day? I say it is. What say you all?"

If the thunderous roar of agreement and the renewed clapping as anything to go by, he felt it was a safe bet that there wasn't a person in this room that thought the New Council was a failure to be abandoned.

"Then, without further adeu, I'll turn the podium over to our chief of Council operations for the award ceremony," Buffy said, looking right to where he was sitting. "Come on down here, Xander. It's your turn."

_Yipee!_ he thought with false enthusiasm as he stood up.

Doing his best not to fidget or look uncomfortable, he made his way up onto the stage and, after a quick hug with Buffy, took her place behind the podium. Looking out at all the people that belonged to the New Council, he couldn't help but feel a bit of pride. The First Evil and its minions had proven to be quite thorough when it came to attacking the Old Council, with only a few of its members managing to make it through alive. Those survivors were a mix of old loyalists and modern thinkers but neither group had been willing to just throw in the towel and settle for civilian life. True, there'd been a few moments of friction once the improvements were proposed then carried out, at least as far as the old loyalists were concerned, but thankfully they eventually saw reason.

"Well, now we're at the part that's most important to everyone here: The shiny gold plated or crystal statues with their name one them," he said, earning a chuckle from the crowd. "Seriously, though, it's a fact of our line of work that we don't get a lot of thanks and in fact get very little recognition. So it's moments like these that help make it all worthwhile.

"First up is a very important award: the Lifetime Achievement Award," he said, feeling more sincere since he knew who was getting the award. "It is an award for Council members who have dedicated their lives to the cause and accomplished things worthy of being remembered. As such it is my honor to bestow this year's Lifetime Achievement Award to none other than Rupert Giles! Let's hear it for him folks!"

With clapping, some honest while others just polite, an old man of sixty-five years got up from his seat and, with mild to moderate help from his walking cane, made his way to the stage. The cane, something that G-Man still saw as overly fancy and expensive, was necessary due to an incident five years prior when the man had shown that the Scoobies had unfortunately rubbed off on him. That, of course, meaning he'd done something reckless, foolish and potentially fatal in order to save the day but somehow managed to survive despite the odds against him. However the act had resulted in multiple bones breaking as well as muscle damage in one leg. While it hadn't eliminated the old Watcher's mobility, it did make running impossible and on particularly damp days the man needed to dip into the infirmary's pain meds.

Nevertheless, seeing the man stride towards him he could only remember the wise man who'd done a better job fathering him than the worthless drunk he was born from.

A slight stumble, though, and his concern went up a bit, wondering if G-Man had been up late and hadn't gotten enough sleep. For a second or two it looked like the old Watcher had recovered when two more steps were taken without difficulty but when the weakness returned tripled he knew that this was not sleep deprivation. However, when he stepped away from the podium to see if he was okay, Fate chose to deny him the opportunity in the most chilling of manner.

Like a statue made entirely out of ashes, with the force keeping it together failing, Rupert Giles fell apart, dropping to the floor until it could easily be mistaken as something fresh from the fireplace.

Shock and grief welled up within him, threatening to overwhelm him, but then his training kicked in, causing him to lock away such emotions. Now was not the time for that. Now was the time to figure out what was going on and how they were going to undo it. While a part of him was certain that this wasn't something someone could come back from, he wasn't about to rule out the possibility completely. One of the things that he'd noticed over the years was that those who practiced magic often tended to add some showbiz pizazz to their spells, even if it wasn't a part of the original spell. For all they knew this had just been some sort of teleportation spell or dimensional displacement. Once Willow and Dawn had some time to research it, they'd locate Giles and then mount a rescue effort.

"KENNEDY!" came Willow's scream, fear and sorrow filling it, causing a terrible feeling to grow in the pit of his stomach.

Turning towards where his bestest bud was sitting, he beheld a sight that became increasingly terrible with every second that passed. From where he stood on the stage he had a horrifyingly good view of the entire seating area of the auditorium and as a result he learned that what'd happened to Giles was not an isolated incident. With no predictable rhyme or reason people in the audience turned to ash, with many unable to speak before they became nothing. When his eyes finally settled on Willow and Kennedy's location, he was just in time to see the former's hand prove to be final straw as it passed through her disintegrating partner's arm, followed by the body.

It was this sight that caused him to turn his gaze to where his own precious people were seated but all he could see was Dawn. Where were Jessie and Joy? Out of sheer denial he sprinted from the stage, his mind lacking anything other than defiance of what logic insisted was the case determined to make his way to his family. When he arrived and could see the scene sufficiently Dawn was on her knees arms in a position to make it look as though she'd been trying to hug air. It was when his eyes fell upon the two piles of ash on either side of her, though, the truth became crystal clear and his ability to lock away his emotions was strained almost to the breaking point.

However he could not be emotional now.

Not when every second could be crucial.

Pulling out a device issued to him his first day as chief of operations, he pressed the red button before bringing it to his lips.

"This is chief of operations Alexander Harris! Code Omega!" he said firmly into the device. "I repeat this is a Code Omega situation! Authorization zero-five-one-nine-eight-zero-C-Omega! Lock down the castle! All defenses to maximum! We are under attack! MOVE IT PEOPLE!"

_**The Senior Member Briefing Room**_

_**Scottish Castle Council HQ**_

_**12 Hours Later**_

_**Robin Wood's POV**_

_This is gonna end bad no matter how I try to spin it,_ he thought as the other founding members of the New Council filed in and took their seats. _Best I can do is be honest and try to get them to accept the facts._

For the last twelve hours the entire information network of the New Council had been put to work trying to figure out what had happened, why it'd happened and most importantly who was responsible. The arcane and ancient records departments had, with respect, examined the remains of every person who had been turned to ashes before giving them to each respective family. While no one wanted to admit it outright, he suspected that everyone believed those affected were dead rather than taken somewhere. Nevertheless, everything was being tested for and only crossed off once they had conclusive evidence that the possibility was a dead end. It had been hectic trying to keep it straight but, with over a decade of experience, those involved in the investigation kept things professional as well as efficient. At the moment all they had was a preliminary and loose picture of what was going on and it'd likely be a couple of days before their agents abroad could help fill in all the blanks, but he knew the others wouldn't have the patience to wait that long.

And what patience they did have would likely evaporate like water in an incinerator once he told them everything he'd learned.

"What do you have for us, Robin?" Buffy asked, her voice cold and her eyes even colder.

"Well, first of all this wasn't a focused assault. No one was targeting us specifically," he said before bringing up a map of the world. "It's global. All over the world people are reporting people turning to ash with little if any warning, sometimes resulting in accidents harming people who weren't effected. While the various agencies and governments are still trying to get a head count on those touched by the phenomena, current estimates are at forty-two percent and climbing."

"Forty-two percent of each country's population?" Willow asked, her voice a little better than Buffy's but not by much.

"Forty-two percent of the entire world's population. Attempts have been made to find a common thread, something to link the affected together, but so far nothing. It's completely random," he replied, remembering the answer coming up every time he asked someone the same question. "It's like someone hooked up a random number generator to spell and then executed it."

"I honestly can't decide if that pisses me off more or less than someone putting the crosshairs on us deliberately," Xander said, animalistic fury clearly being held at bay, if only just. "Does anyone know who did this? A warlock? A demon faction?"

This would be the part that could send the entire briefing into chaos and would be the hardest to make the people in front of him listen to reason.

"No. An hour ago I received a briefing packet from our guy on the World Security Council," he said, changing the image on the screen to show the perpetrator. "This is Thanos. He's an alien, not a demon."

"Really?" Willow asked, scrutinizing the image no doubt for familiar demonic traits. "That's new."

"Yeah, well, so is his story. According to what our guy's managed to learn, Thanos has a bloody agenda and so far no one's been able to stop him for very long if at all." He put up the map they'd acquired of the galaxy, full of holes though it was. "He apparently believes that every inhabited planet in the galaxy is going to eventually suffer the problems that usually happen as a result of overpopulation and then go extinct. He believes in keeping things in balance and that includes keeping a planet's resources proportional to the number of sentient beings who need them in order to thrive."

"So what? He takes over the planet and puts his grand manifesto into action?" Xander asked, sounding unimpressed thus far with the newfound focus of his rage.

"No. He invades the planet with his large and decidedly lethal army and, once he has control of the surface, he splits the population in two randomly before killing half of them." He remembered how floored he'd been when he'd learned of this.

He was no stranger to death and with the New Council he'd been to battlefields where the dead covered the ground as far as the eye could see. However death on the scale of the report he'd gotten was something he could scarcely fathom, never mind accurately picture. Looking at the others he could see that they were also having trouble grasping the enormity of evil that Thanos had been committing over the years but he needed to keep their minds from lingering on the past so that they could understand the present.

"He's done this to more worlds than we know but about ten years ago his game plan changed. Seeing himself as someone willing to make the hard choices no one else would, he wanted to refine his efforts so he could see the end result in his own lifetime. So he began to look for six stones that supposedly would give him the power to do just that," he said, successfully managing to bring the group out of their shock and back into the outside world. "They're called Infinity Stones and apparently they were created by the Big Bang. Each one can control a different facet of reality. Time, space, power, reality, soul and mind, with any single one of them being capable of making its wielder a galactic power. Get all six together and, well… what happened twelve hours ago happens, not just here but EVERYWHERE in existence."

"Okay. So space Hitler got his hands on six tools of galactic destruction," Xander said, sounding like he was taking it all in but had one important question. "I got one big question: WHY THE HELL DIDN'T WE GET A HEADS UP ON THIS!? Slayers are supposed to get visions of big crap coming down the pike so we can stop it. We've got seers in the Coven that can do the same! Why didn't we get a warning!?"

"The short answer? It's not our jurisdiction," Willow replied, showing greater restraint than Xander but still not sounding happy AT ALL. "We handle the supernatural and demonic. We even made it a rule of ours when we founded the New Council. The rest of the world handles the normal issues and we stick to the supernatural and demonic. If the beings responsible for sending Slayers and witches their visions think the same, then they wouldn't warn us about some alien with cosmic stones."

"So the one time when everything is on the line, when the lives of countless people across the galaxy are at risk, and they can't make an exception?!" Xander asked, his incredulity laced with anger. "We have hundreds of Slayers! If we'd even gotten just twenty-four hours warning I could've had all of them armed and mobilized in half that time on board planes that could've gotten them anywhere on the planet in hours! We could've done something!"

"Maybe. Maybe not," he said, bringing up the latest intel even though it was incomplete. "According to the first crumbs we've gotten the big fight happened in the nation of Wakanda about an hour or so before the phenomena happened. The Avengers and their military fought against sizeable army of creatures and generals, with the odds see-sawing as to who'd win."

"Let me take a wild stab and say they lost." Buffy said, sounding like she had a really poor opinion of the so-called superheroes at the moment.

"We're still trying to pull out the details of what happened," he said, remembering what their undercover agents had told him. "However we're having trouble given that Secretary Ross has been even more paranoid and high strung than usual. Apparently Mister Rhodes hung up on him during one of their holo-calls after Captain America showed up with others who'd refused to sign the Sokovia Accords."

"Smartest thing he could've done," Xander said with a look of contempt at the mention of Secretary Ross.

Not surprising considering that it was Xander who'd been put on point when it came to negotiating with the American government with regards to what the New Council could do on U.S soil. The American delegation had been comprised of a member of the CIA, a representative of the President and the military with then-General 'Thunderbolt' Ross being the last one. The first two had been open yet serious about what the Council would need to agree to in order to permit Slayers to operate in American soil. Xander had reported that the first two were reasonable with their terms and that he could understand their wariness regarding the New Council. The old order, Travers and his people, were likely the ones the United States had been working with since the country's founding so someone new was an unknown quantity.

Ross, on the other hand, had been quite unreasonable and had in fact been quite hostile towards Xander, believing that it was unacceptable to put the safety of America in the hands of teenagers or foreign citizens. It'd been Ross' opinion that all Slayers who were confirmed to be American citizens should be under the jurisdiction of law enforcement or the military, as well as answerable to those institutions. Basically he wanted America to have its own Slayer division, answerable to the American government like any other cop or soldier. Naturally Xander had told the man that Slayers existed to protect HUMANITY, not just Americans, and that in order to go where they were needed the Council couldn't afford to alienate other countries by playing favorites. If Slayers were placed under the authority of the United States and this was passed on to other nations, they might follow suit and valuable time would be wasted in a war between Slayers cold or otherwise. Demons would take advantage of the situation using their puppets and human collaborators to ensure that more time was spent with Slayers fighting each other than their true prey.

Naturally Ross only cared about America and believed that other nations could deal with their inhuman problems their own way. The idiot had even gone further and said that if any foreign nation tried to use their Slayers against the United States of America then appropriate action would be taken in retaliation.

Needless to say it was a good thing the other two representatives of the United States stepped in when they did otherwise Xander might've pulled all New Council support from America.

Or at least that would've been the threat and anyone in the know about the supernatural would never permit that to happen just because of one man's warped sense of right and wrong.

Several people were of the mind that it would have been easier if Xander had just killed the man then and there. Only a few key people had been against the idea, saying that killing him would be easy but dealing with the fallout would cost them political capital that they didn't have or couldn't afford.

"The only thing that we can say for certain is that Thanos is still alive and that he managed to use the space stone to escape," he said, knowing that this would be the most provocative to those present who'd lost someone. "Given the cosmic nature of each stone he could be anywhere in the galaxy and, even if we could find out where he was, I don't know if we have the resources to get to him."

"You're suggesting he's left Earth. Gone somewhere else in the galaxy." Willow said more as a statement than a question.

"It would be the logical move," he said, putting his opinion forth. "He was likely injured during the fight and he'd accomplished his objective. If he'd stayed on Earth the Avengers would've hunted him down and probably tried to use the stones to undo his work. His best option for his survival and the survival of his victory would be to put as much distance between himself and others as possible. Maybe go to some uninhabited world far from any space traffic."

Watching Xander, Willow, Buffy and Dawn, he waited for one or all of them to furiously declare that they'd pursue Thanos no matter where he'd gone. That they would put the full force of the Council on the job of both finding the alien and fabricating a means by which they could go after him no matter the cost. It was, after all, the typical reaction of someone who'd lost a precious person as a result of the deliberate act of another. However if they did this he would do his best to impress upon them that they were out of their league against Thanos. Buffy, at best, was strong enough and fast enough and skilled enough to fight the legendary Captain America to a stalemate but, according to his source, the hero had barely been able to slow Thanos down. Willow might be the most powerful Wicca he knew, if not in the entire world, but he'd never seen anything to suggest she could generate power on the same level as Thor. Xander might've done his best to make the most of his Halloween soldier possession and build upon it but that just put him in the same league as S.H.I.E.L.D.'s upper echelon of agents.

If they, along with Dawn, tried to go after Thanos while the alien was in possession of the infinity stones, they'd be wiped out with a thought.

Even if they armed every Slayer and every Watcher before assaulting Thanos' position, the power of the stones made their numbers useless.

"Thank you for briefing us on this, Robin," Xander said with an eerie calm voice. "Keep pulling in what information you can from all Council sources. Even if we can't take revenge on Thanos directly, others might not be so accepting of this fact. There's no telling how far they'll go to get their pound of flesh and what trouble they'll prove willing to put the world in to get it. Only cold hard facts will stop them and only if it's presented in the right way."

"You'll each be updated on any new intel every two hours until the last reports come in," he said, feeling a little relieved at the direction things were going.

However, despite the missing explosive rage, he still had a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach looking at the four people before him.

_It's probably nothing,_ he thought, shaking his mental head. _Just aftershocks of learning so much about Thanos._

After all how could anyone get over the fact that someone had been going around for years killing billions of people each time in less than a day. Even with what the Council faced on a yearly basis, it was rarely that bad.

It made him feel small and really put in perspective where the Council stood in the galactic pecking order.

Still, this was the only world he knew and so he would do his best to protect it, even if his efforts were small potatoes compared to those higher up the ladder.

_**Willow's Private Arcane Laboratory**_

_**One Hour Later**_

_**Buffy's POV**_

"We good?" she asked, looking to Willow for a positive answer.

"We're good. My lab is now completely isolated from the rest of the castle and eavesdropping is impossible," Willow said, her face devoid of the academic enthusiasm. "We should only keep it this way for an hour or so. Any longer and Robin will get suspicious."

"Right. So what's the plan?" Xander asked, sounding like he had a few ideas of his own.

"Willow goes to Wakanda and finds this Thanos' departure point. With any luck magic will be able to trace the connection between departure point and arrival point," she replied, voicing the courses of action she'd already come up with. "Even if we can't get exact coordinates, it'll be enough to get a ballpark area to search."

"I'll tell people I'm checking to see if the power of the infinity stones disrupted Earth's natural magical flow. That should allow me to gather the ingredients I'll need without making anyone suspicious," Willow said, not hesitating. "I'll need to leave soon, though, and make only one or two stops before heading to Wakanda. The longer I wait, the more the trail'll go cold."

"I'll manage Slayer deployments around the world. With half the population gone, vampires and demons'll see this as an opportunity to go on the offensive," Xander said, looking more focused than ever before. "I know a few girls that'll follow my orders without question. I'll have them 'talk' with some of the demon tribes in Wakanda and some of the more organized demon groups in New York City. We'll get more information about what went down and just what we're up against."

"Make sure they understand to wipe out the groups and clans afterwards," she said in a no nonsense tone of voice. "We can't risk word getting back to Robin or any other member of the Council."

"Of course," Xander said with a nod. "They'll appreciate the chance to cut loose."

"I'll start looking through our inventory of talismans and enchanted weaponry," Dawn said, disclosing her contribution to the venture. "If Thanos was able to take on the Avengers and still accomplish his goal as well as get away, we'll need several edges to tear him apart. I'll find them."

"And what'll you tell the others if they ask?" she asked, wanting to make sure that a convincing cover story would be ready for use.

"I'll tell them I'm worried that some of the larger demon organizations like the Order of Taraka and Wolfram & Hart might try to remove us from the game," Dawn replied without hesitation. "With the reps of the parties involved, no one will question why I'm taking stock of our magical arsenal."

"What'll you be doing, Buffy?" Xander asked, sounding curious about what she'd be doing while the rest of them worked.

"We're charged with protecting humanity against the stuff of nightmares. Even if this was outside of our usual territory, we still failed miserably!" she declared, her mind imagining how many people across the world were grieving at that very moment. "When we founded the New Council, I made the proposal to limit our activities to the supernatural and demonic because I didn't want to overburden us with more than we could handle. Because I didn't want our Slayers to be forced to fight humans more than was necessary! Now look at the price we've paid for my fear!"

While the others had worked to find out what'd happened and why, she had focused her efforts on making contact with every branch office, safe house and VIP she could. She'd done this believing that she needed to figure out how bad the damage to the New Council really was but that was a lie. The truth of the matter was that she just wanted to find out for herself that the people precious to her that hadn't been in the castle for the assembly were okay. To her grief, more numbers dialed went unanswered then answered but when she called David's home to hear his voice and confirm that he was okay, it was his sister who informed her of the terrible reality.

David was gone.

Turned to ashes before Sarah's very eyes.

Her world had shattered as it had only once before when she'd walked into her house to find her mother dead and it was only because of her own stubborn spirit that she'd been able to pull herself out of her ocean of grief. As the hours passed the number of people confirmed to had been turned to ash had only gone up and that was just counting those people with ties to the Council. At last count almost a thousand people had been taken from this world by the event that were connected to the Council, with the few news broadcasts she'd watched giving her idea of the death toll worldwide. Faced with so much death, it was inevitable to ask themselves a single question: what could I have done to prevent this?

After much time to think she had reached a single conclusion: four years ago, after the attack on New York City by alien forces, she should've altered the Council's mandate to include such threats.

Instead she'd only remarked on the gathering of the founding members of the Avengers and put her faith in them when it came to handling threats of a scientific or off world nature.

Never again would she shirk her duty as a protector of the human race, not if this was the price!

"There is only one way we can atone for our failure," she said, her tone quiet yet bristling with power. "We must break the seals. We must embrace what we once turned our backs on. No matter the cost."

She could see the surprise on the faces of the others as their minds made the connection and, much like she'd expected, none of them completely rejected the proposed course of action.

However neither did they completely embrace it but she'd be suspicious if they had considering the consequences breaking the seals would have for each of them.

"We should wait before going down that road," Willow said, sounding like she suspected they'd be doing it anyway. "We all remember what Giles told us after the sealing ritual was complete. There'd be no going back to who we are now."

"When Willow goes to trace Thanos' location, she can do a psychometric scan of the battlefield," Xander proposed, sounding like he wanted to be sure before committing himself to the option of last resort. "Get us images of what happened and what Thanos is capable of. Once she has a better feel for the power he has and his skill level, we'll know if what we have now, what we are now, will be enough to kill him."

"And if it isn't?" she asked, her instincts telling her that they would fall short of the necessary requirements.

"Then we make sure our legacy here won't be burned by the flames of vengeance," he replied, a light in his remaining eye that she remembered from so long ago. "And we show Thanos that even infinite power will not save him from us, from our wrath."

The part of her that still grieved for the lost, that turned that grief into rage, wanted to ignore the reason embedded in their words but time had matured her somewhat. She knew that for something so important nothing could be left to chance and unbridled fury would only lead to mistakes being made that could rob them of their revenge. Therefore she put the part of her that screamed for reckless action in chains before nodding in agreement with what her friends proposed.

"Fine. Get the information, make the preparations and then report back," she said, somewhat forcing the words past her lips. "I'll do what I can to keep people from looking too closely at what you're doing."

With that said the assembled members of their quartet dispersed to prepare for the first steps on their path of vengeance.

Vengeance would not, could not, be denied and woe to anyone who tried to stop them.

_**The Forests Close to the Wakandan Capital City**_

_**The Middle of the Night**_

_**Willow's POV**_

FLASH!

In an instant she was no longer in her personal laboratory and instead stood in the middle of a clearing surrounded by trees, vegetation indigenous to this particular part of Africa. Looking around with both her normal sight and the vision granted to her by various spells, she was glad to see that there was no one around. Despite the calamity that had been born there, no warriors of Wakanda or even the remaining Avengers were present to get in the way of what she was determined to do. In all likelihood they were with friends and family mourning the dead or wallowing in the emotions a protector often felt when they had failed miserably in their duties. So long as she didn't give them any reason to be interested, she would be able to get what she'd come for relatively easily.

Reaching out with her arcane senses she looked for any distortions similar to those she'd encountered during her time as chief of the arcane division of the New Council. Every magical method of teleportation or portal opening had an effect on the surrounding environment, ranging from the physical to the metaphysical. As such it did not take long for her to find two dissipating points of distortion, with the weaker one likely being where Thanos arrived while the latter was where he departed. With her target located she strode with determined steps, unwilling to let her best chance of finding Kennedy's murderer slip through her fingers.

Taking the most direct route, she used her magic to render any obstructions in her way impotent either by phasing through them or floating over them. Upon arriving less than ten feet from the center of Thanos' departure distortion she reached into the two pouches tied to her waist before pulling out seven glowing gemstones. With precision and skill she threw them in a specific order, with the distortion acting as the epicenter, and when all were in place she cancelled out the arcane bindings in each of them. Reacting to this the light within each gemstone shot out with purpose, creating complex patterns that took a few seconds to take on obvious arcane patterns. It took some time but eventually the patterns each gemstone created connected with one another to form a complex arcane circle that hummed with her power.

_Now to get to work,_ she thought, lifting off the ground before assuming a cross-legged position. _By now the tether between beginning and ending has likely already frayed by half. Even if I'm careful I'll probably accelerate the damage with my tracing so I'll only get one or two shots at this._

Closing her organic eyes and focusing her mind entirely on her mystic eyes, she located the tether before willing her power to begin metaphorically swimming up it to find its other end. As she worked she allowed a part of herself to marvel at the properties of the space stone and the energy it possessed. It did not match any magic she had 'seen' before with her mystic eyes and neither did it have similarities to any scientific phenomena she'd seen before. However through her contact with the tether she could sense the potency of the power it possessed and could easily predict what she likely would've felt had she been there to see the bastard leave.

_If this is the power of just one stone then the power of all six… NO! It doesn't matter how powerful the stones make him!_ she thought, shattering the kernel of fear her prediction had almost finished creating. _Power is meaningless if the one controlling it is flawed. Countless warlocks and demon sorcerers thought themselves invincible when they came into power only to be brought down by their own personal weaknesses and flaws. Thanos shall be no different._

Feeling the tether fraying with every minute that passed she doubled her efforts to find the other end, not caring about the risks she took in pushing herself so far. To someone watching her from the physical world she imagined that her hair was changing color and the veins in her exposed skin were likely becoming ever more vivid. However it would all be worth it when she found where Thanos had run off to and so she pressed onwards. Further and further away from the planet Earth she extended her arcane power, utilizing every trick she could think of to make sure that she did not run out of power before she accomplished her goal. From the land of Wakanda, the remnants of crackling power that'd been in close proximity to Thanos' departure point and even the residue of the space stone itself, she took it all to continue her path forward.

Even as the tether began to crumble beneath her she worked to continue down it, determined to at least get a reliable heading if she couldn't find Thanos' arrival point.

Before long, though, her one connection to Thanos became akin to space dust, leaving her floundering in the great emptiness of the space between planets. Such was the cost of pushing herself further than she ever had before and using external sources to bolster her when her own core of power was not enough. Nevertheless she did not give up and used all the will she could muster to retract all that she was back to the planet Earth and back into her body. It was a testament to who she was and what the many years of diligent training had given rise to that she was able to begin the journey back. It became a miracle when, despite the odds, she actually made it to the halfway point but those two things proved only capable of getting her so far.

As her stubbornness demanded that she continue on only to fall short she wondered if in her desire for vengeance she had only wound up dooming herself. If so she would at least make sure that Buffy, Dawn and Xander would benefit from what she had learned. She would use what strength she had left to burn the heading she had traced into her physical body and key what arcane power she could to display it as a hologram when her sense of hearing detected all three of them. Hopefully they would be able to use it to find Thanos and carry out their vengeance on her behalf.

"There is no need for such dire measures, little cub," a primal voice said even as she was gathered up by a powerful and ancient magic. "Reckless though your actions may have been, your resolve is admirable and worthy of reward."

With an unusual mix of power and gentleness she found herself fully back in her body, the arcane circle she'd created being blown away by unseen winds. It was incredibly disorienting at first and, while no longer in danger of perishing, she had still taxed her body to its very limits, leaving her with only enough strength to remain conscious. A recovery period of at least a few hours of sleep would likely be required before she'd be able to teleport back to the castle and she only had herself to blame for that.

Still… who was the one who'd come to her aide?

"You come to my lands and know not who I am?" the primal voice asked with polite amusement. "Reckless indeed but also possessing great resolve. Will it be enough to grant you what you seek? I truly hope that it does young champion for, though I am bound by ancient laws, that does not mean I am not filled with a desire for vengeance. Many Wakandans were slain by Thanos and their souls cry out for vengeance. Go and answer their cries. Know that the blessings of the Ennead go with you."

With that she fell into slumber but instead of dreams filled with loss or fury her sleep showed her a battle between those who protected and those who destroyed.

Of one who called down the lightning and one who believed he was right even when the entire galaxy told him he was insane.

Through this dream she would gain knowledge and with that knowledge divine judgment would descend upon Thanos with all the fury of a supernova.

_**The Office of the Chief of Operations**_

_**Six Hours Later**_

_**Xander's POV**_

While he might have been alone in his office he was far from without anything to do and had locked the door to ensure that he would not be interrupted.

Since the others had gone to see to their respective parts in the plan he had divided his efforts into two parts, devoting sufficient energy to each one in order to achieve maximum results. The first, of course, was to take in all the information they were acquiring on Thanos in order to gain a proper tactical image in his mind of their prey. It was key to understand precisely what their prey could do, what the bastard couldn't do and what obstacles they'd need smash through to make him pay the ultimate price.

Over the years of fighting he had realized that he would never be the sort of warrior often depicted in the movies, comics or videogames. While such venues did provide thrilling stories of an everyday man rising up to become the strongest champion the world had ever seen, reality was far too harsh to allow such a thing. For all the possibilities that were open to someone like him he was still human with all the limitations and flaws that went along with being a member of the species. Add to that the loss of an eye during the closing days in Sunnydale and the only way he'd been able to keep up with everyone else was to do what he'd never really done before.

Train his MIND.

Scary thought, eh?

While he did his best to get and keep his body in tip-top condition he also began reading books on strategy as well as having a weekly chess match with Giles, regardless of painful it was for the first five years. Eventually he'd gotten to the point where reading material and chess matches couldn't help him any further, leaving him to move on to online strategy games as well as something that occasionally had gotten him in trouble.

Coming up with combat courses for the Slayers that were deliberately designed to ensure that they'd fail immediately came to mind.

Using them as his test subjects he created scenario after scenario, with them posing as the 'evil demons', with the end goal being either their containment or termination. Naturally the latter took the form of paintball impacts, light tazer rounds and the like since he wasn't about to sink to the same level as Travers or demons. If the Slayers managed to beat a scenario he congratulated them on their good work but later went over the training session to see where he failed so he could make improvements on the next scenario. If the Slayers failed he told him that the purpose of the scenario was to teach them about their own limitations as well as make real the possibility that they might not always win.

Basically it was the New Council equivalent of Star Trek's Kobayashi Maru scenario.

However when one too many Slayer squads failed his scenario they started bitching about it to the others and so he'd gotten double teamed by both Willow and Buffy. They'd wanted an explanation and when he'd told them the truth… he wouldn't say that they were mad but they did disapprove of using Slayers in training as lab rats for his own training. It was after all part of his job to help the girls get better not chip away at their self-confidence day by day. He had pointed out that using this method would actually produce superior Slayers since they'd have to up their games to beat his scenarios and it'd deflate the egos of the ones that liked to talk down to normal humans. While fresh from Calling Slayers were good enough against low level minions or some of the more primal demons there was more than those two types out there. There were demons and vampires who had skills and cunning minds that were more than capable of making a Slayer team dance to a tune that'd end with them dead or captured. If they were going to extend the lifespan of the average Slayer all the way to retirement age then they needed to not only make them strong but also smart.

This had caused Buffy and Willow to relent a little bit but they'd insisted that he space out the 'no-win scenarios' more and put in more training scenarios that the Slayers could actually beat if they used their brains. He'd agreed if only because if the Slayers lost too many times to his creations he'd have a hard time finding lab rats to test future ones on down the road.

Right now he was taking in everything they'd found out about Thanos and the fight in Wakanda along with the dossiers of the Avengers who'd been present for the fight. Most of what he'd come across so far indicated that they'd gone to Wakanda to get the mind stone out of Vision, either to hide it or destroy it. By studying up on both the good guys and the bad guys he could draw up a rough idea of how things must've gone down as well as how Thanos had managed to kill off half the galaxy. Once he honed and refined the battle in his head he could come up with a short list of the bastard's strengths and weaknesses. That would allow him to come up with a battle plan that he could later show the others and have them add their own input on how to make it that much more likely to succeed.

_Okay… looks like high levels of super strength or at least enough to make taking down the Hulk a non-issue. Worrisome but not impossible to get past,_ he thought, piecing together a tactical image in his mind. _Willow's got plenty of spells that can sap a target's strength and even if that's not enough physical strength is useless if you can't connect with anything._

The high level of durability was an issue since according to a report on some demons that'd been passing through Wakanda told one of his Slayers that Thanos had taken the blade end of Thor's new hammer to the chest and had still managed to get away. Possible healing factor plus the possibility that Thanos' species had their critical organs in different locations than a human being. It'd take some experimentation with successful attacks and some feints to find out where the asshole didn't want to get hit but that just meant the four of them would have to work together. If only one of them did probing attacks Thanos would catch on and be more careful but if they each took a crack at it then the big bastard would take longer to realize what they were doing.

The thing that had him worried the most were the six stones that Thanos was in possession of and for good reason. Used at the same time they had effectively turned to ash half the sentient beings in the galaxy in seconds without any noticeable advance warning aside from what he suspected was an odd feeling in the victims. If the info Robin had uncovered was right and double checking it proved its validity to his satisfaction then each stone was able to manipulate its chosen variable to a staggering degree. Power, space, reality, time, soul and mind were now things that Thanos could affect at will to whatever degree he wanted. If Thanos had been able to hold off a small army long enough to accomplish his goal all by himself then that implied much about what sort of edge the stones gave him.

Taking what he knew of the three that'd be coming with him. as well as some of the more impressive arcane weapons in their armory. he began to play with the variables as the battle played out in his head. With years of seeing Buffy, Dawn and Willow fight he had no trouble picturing how they would assault the monster and he knew how he'd attack as well. The difficulty came in estimating just how deadly Thanos was in combat as well as what sort of strategies, tactics and skills he'd bring to bear along with the Infinite Stones. Was he a front line commander who fought alongside his troops or was he more like a general who directed things from the rear? Both were positions requiring a certain degree of combat competency but the latter was usually kept off the battlefield either due to importance or simply because they weren't physically capable of fighting anymore. As such a general's fighting skills would likely be rusty and if old age or an injury slowed down their body. then they would be much easier to beat.

Seeing as how Thanos had been able to defeat the Hulk and hold off an army long enough to kill half the people in the galaxy. that meant he led from the thick of things.

As a result he deliberately measured Thanos' fighting potential to be on the high side of things despite his obvious bulk while putting his training as identical to boot camp instructors of similar build. Coupled with the power of the Infinity Stones the picture that started to form in his mind was not encouraging to say the least. The instructors in any country's military boot camp weren't there for their good looks or their knowledge of military protocol but because they had the know-how as well as the skills to make sure the new recruits would be a credit to their nation. While sometimes they were assigned to instruct because a battlefield injury or old age made field work problematic. there were some who simply felt that they would be of most use to their country shaping the next generation. If Thanos' skill matched his estimations then killing him would require equal portions surprise and assured lethality. As long as the monster knew where each of them was during the fight as well as what they could do a stalemate that'd last a while was a distinct possibility.

Also there was a high likelihood that the purple killer had encountered a wide variety of weapons, from simple cutting edges to things with hidden surprises in them that upped their killing potential. Even if the alien had never encountered magic before, it was probable that some species somewhere had come up with a sword capable of energy discharges or something that had a little extra added that did not react well with living tissue. They'd need weapons then that didn't have any visible clues that hinted at what 'special feature' it had as well as a fast rate of fire.

_It'd probably also be a good idea that any damage they do goes from high to low instead of low to high,_ he thought, thinking about how Thanos could turn things around on them.

The fact of the matter was that even if they hit Thanos with a nasty surprise, the alien could have the fortitude to endure the pain and use one of the Infinity Stones against them in retaliation. If they used weapons that started out only doing a little damage in the beginning but proved cumulative Thanos would likely knock them on their butts before any significant damage was done. However if their attacks did the majority of their damage on the initial impact then perhaps they could disorient the fucker long enough for another hit to land keeping the asshole on the back heel. It'd take good timing but they'd manage.

_Wait a second… _he thought as something occurred to him out of the blue. _If he has the power to wipe out half the sentient population in existence then how did he get hurt in the first place? Why did he have to flee at all?_

While it was true that he was using guesswork and comic book logic to estimate the power each Infinity Stone possessed, it shouldn't have been possible for the Avengers to do any damage to the monster at all. So what happened? He thought on the matter debating possibilities like Thanos wanting a good fight to the stones needing time to build up to galaxy killing levels. However in the end he came upon a conclusion that had him grinning.

Thanos could only use one or two stones at a time!

They were so powerful that they either required considerable focus to use or they placed such a strain on the user's body that to go past two resulted in self-injury. That meant most likely that in disintegrating half the galaxy's population, the purple people eater had intentionally inflicted a serious injury upon himself. THAT would explain why he'd retreated rather than do the typical villain victory speech. It also meant that they had a potential weakness to exploit if done the right way. If they could somehow force Thanos to use more than two of the Stones at a time the pain or injury it caused him could give one of them an opening to deliver a decisive blow. In all likelihood, though, whoever succeeded in forcing the alien's hand would not survive to gloat about their success and that meant he'd make sure he was the one that did it. The others brought more to the fight than he did and therefore stood a better chance of dealing the killing blow against their chosen prey. If he could be the pebble that started the avalanche then he'd die gladly knowing he would be the tripwire that caused the fall of the being that'd killed his children.

Then another possibility soured his mind given how possible it was to be the truth.

What if Thanos had retreated to some sort fortress or encampment filled with loyal soldiers and a sizeable arsenal?

He had been operating under the assumption that either Thanos would leave someplace to be alone and that he'd brought all of his forces to Wakanda to acquire the Infinity Stone there. Considering what Robin had told them in the briefing, Thanos had attacked and conquered many worlds before eradicating half of their existing population. That was not something you could do with only a few hundred troops and support craft. You'd need an army greater than the combined military strength of whatever world you were conquering AND you'd need a force big enough to defeat any retaliatory efforts that might be sent your way. As his mind raced to come up with a best guess the only thing he could say for certain was that if Thanos had retreated someplace where he could get protection until he'd fully recovered, then killing him was going to be infinitely harder. Four warriors against a single powerful target was doable with enough planning and the right resources but four against an army surrounding a single target was suicide.

_We'd need to lure him away from his armies. Get him someplace alone or at least with so few bodyguards that we'd have a fighting chance,_ he thought as he adjusted the tactical scenario in his mind to reflect Thanos having loyal troops at his side.

With new variables in play he began to imagine how the fight would go and how he, Buffy, Willow and Dawn could bring about their vengeance successfully. Minutes soon became hours but as time passed his mood soured proportionally as his mind came up with one unacceptable outcome after another. With all the data their sources were bringing in, he attempted to refine his mental simulation, hoping that some new tidbit would give him something encouraging. However when hour number five rolled around and his stomach complained that it needed food he still hadn't figured out a surefire way to circumvent any bodyguards Thanos might have with him. More than that when he factored in the skill sets, the experience and the abilities of the four of them, the most he could see them handling were around fifteen bodyguards plus Thanos himself.

He very much doubted that the universe would be so kind as to only pit against them the maximum they were capable of handling.

As for luring the madman away from his army with only the bare minimum of backup, he wasn't sure what they could do. If the reports he was reading were accurate the psycho had achieved what he'd set out to do and was all set to bask in the joy of victory. While they could certainly insult his accomplishment, belittle it, odds were good that the purple fucker had already heard a lot of it. They couldn't undo his work or even put on a good enough light show to make someone think they could so they couldn't use that against Thanos.

_Think, Harris! THINK!_ he thought angrily at the facts that would try to convince him that vengeance was pointless. _How do you get an enemy where you want them to go but without the bothersome entourage?_

He would find and answer and when the others returned with their contributions they would have all they required to exact bloody compensation from Thanos.

They WOULD NOT be DENIED!


	2. The Sparks That Birthed The Inferno

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the copyrighted materials contained herein. They are the rightful property of their respective creators and/or associated companies. I make no profit from this whatsoever and I have no intention of changing this at any point in the future. I write because it's fun and because some people enjoy reading my stories. Therefore please no lawsuits or other kinds of legal action. I can promise you that whatever you get from me won't even cover your legal fees.

* * *

_**The Castle Headquarters of the New Council**_

_**Medium Security Armory **_

_**Dawn**__**'**__**s POV**_

"Take this to the arcane division," she ordered the Council member helping her. "Tell them to prepare it for use."

A nod was all she received and, to be honest, all she cared to receive.

She was totally submerged in her work and intended to stay that way until she met up with the others later.

To do otherwise would be to hear the cries again, even if they were only products of her mind rather than the real thing.

Before she even realized it her mind was pulled down the path of recollection to the single worst moment in recent memory. The sight of Xander waiting for Giles to approach to give him his lifetime achievement award, only to watch her mentor stumble oddly. Then, just as she began to see him turn to ash, Jessie and Joy cry out in fear, causing her to look in their direction intending to comfort them.

Such words of comfort died quickly on her lips as she saw ash grey beginning to creep across their bodies like paint soaking into fabric. Unmatchable horror surged through her then, blocking out all conscious thought and causing only instinct to guide her as she reached out to grab both of her children. Upon later reflection she knew it was pointless but at the time she had believed with all her soul that if she could just wrap her arms around them that she could keep them safe. As if to rub her face in her error, though, the moment she made contact with Jessie his body began to crumble like a sculpture made of ash being blown away in the wind. As if to compound her agony the same fate befell Joy but before her body became incapable of the act, her darling little girl let out one final shriek of terror, leaving her to grasp nothing but air.

She growled, shaking herself from the memory even as she shoved the pain it caused into a steel box in her mind.

She would not allow even her own pain, sorrow or rage to slow her preparations.

Instead she would contain such emotions, send them to the deepest parts of her mind and only when she stood before Thanos would she unleash them upon him. They would strike him with the force of a nuclear explosion, staggering him, bloodying him, breaking him until there was naught left but a pathetic broken form BEGGING for death.

A death she would not give him!

No, his suffering would be as eternal as hers was and only when she became too old or weak to make him suffer would she finally deliver the deathblow.

Maybe.

If Buffy, Xander or Willow wanted to take over for her she would not hesitate to let them, for they like her were entitled to the vengeance in whatever form it took.

Walking down the aisle lined on either side with containers of various sorts, each one containing a weapon of some kind, but inside were no mere forgings of metal. Each and every one of them had a special ability, sometimes several, that made them especially effective in battle and, as Faith once put it, 'made them a cast iron bitch' to get. Nevertheless, whenever they were found, either entombed or in the hands of another, the Council took them and placed them there in order to ensure that they were never used for evil. When the situation required it they sometimes used the weapons they'd acquired in defence of the world but always with the greatest of care. Some of the weapons required a price to be paid in order to bring their extra features out to play and others were sought after by others with less than benign intentions, so using them carelessly was not a good idea.

_Good thing I'm not planning on using them carelessly,_ she thought as her eyes fell upon a glass display case, with spider webs of metal crisscrossing the transparent material. _No, I have a very deliberate and well thought out use for each of them._

"Planning a war, Dawn?" asked a voice that caused her to school her face into an expression of neutrality.

Turning towards the one who'd spoken, she couldn't help but wonder who had tripped up and aroused Robin's suspicions. Sure, it might have been her work in the armoury, but fortunately she had a cover story already thought up and best of all it was substantiated by the latest intelligence reports from their sources in the field.

"Not so much a war as a defensive action," she said, turning away from the display case containing her next choice. "I assume you've seen the intelligence reports for both the Order of Taraka and Wolfram & Hart?"

"Yeah. Ones taking contracts like there's no tomorrow and the other seems to be planning something big," Robin replied, summarizing the reports briefly but accurately.

"They know the status quo has been shaken up, that we've been shaken up, by what Thanos has done. Every demon and warlock on the planet sees this as a chance to make a grab for power or wealth," she explained, hoping her would buy her story. "We've racked up enough enemies that they'll probably make a try for revenge, hoping we'll be too busy crying or doing damage control elsewhere to survive their assault. We need to be ready."

"We will be. I've already put every Council branch office on yellow alert and ordered every team not guarding a critical position back to more defensible positions," Robin said, showing that he was as on top of things as he usually was. "Any demon hunting groups seeking refuge will be let in once they've passed the necessary screening tests to make sure there aren't any sleeper agents trying to get in. Once things settle down and we take stock of what's been lost, we'll plan accordingly."

"So we'll… what? Hire on freelancers? Push back the Tarakans? Make Wolfram & Hart back down?" she asked, not all that impressed with the predictable courses of action.

"What else can we do? Thanos' action has halved our manpower and with it what we can feasibly do," Robin said, sounding like he didn't think more could be done. "We need time to rebuild our numbers and our strength. When we're ready we can try something more ambitious."

"And by trying to buy time for ourselves we buy them time as well. Some of them might even take advantage of what we do, attack the enemies we push back and finish them off, making them even more powerful than before," she said, pointing out how their actions could be used to benefit evil.

"So we do our homework before we act. Find out who's in town when we plan to move and make sure they don't get the windfall they're hoping for," Robin said, showing he recognized the danger. "It's not perfect but it's the best we can do for now."

'The best we can do?' 'It's not perfect?'

Those were always the excuses they told themselves whenever they were forced to give up or accept a poor outcome. While she was not foolish enough to think that they could win every battle they entered, she had to wonder if perhaps they were a little too quick to use those words. How many times had they pushed their luck? Taken a risk on the chance that they could seize an even greater victory? While it was indeed admirable to do all one could to protect your comrades, it was a fact that their chosen occupation did not guarantee a peaceful retirement. Since founding the New Council they'd done many a thing to ensure that as many as possible lived long lives and many more reached retirement than had been the case with the Old Council. With this being the case, why not ensure that those who perished did so for a greater purpose instead of a random demon encounter.

Perhaps if they'd pushed harder or tried to do more, Thanos might've been stopped.

"Maybe. I doubt the people that'll die while we bandage our wounds will be happy with words like that," she said, turning back to the case she'd chosen to empty. "Now if you'll excuse me, I've got to make sure we're ready for the attack that we both know is coming."

For a moment she wondered if Robin would attempt to console her but, when she heard footsteps walking away from her, she supposed that the man had chosen to leave her to her work. Good. She had little use for platitudes and consolation at the moment. Perhaps later, when Thanos was safely in chains, she would allow herself some measure of comfort.

For now though she would prepare for vengeance by gathering the tools she and the others would need for the battle to come.

Opening the case before her, she beheld a sword that, if the records were accurate, held the ability to pass on the power of death to whatever living thing it cut. She imagined that it was like a mystical version of a flesh eating virus or the Hollywood depictions of what'd happen when someone's life force was being drained out of their body. Whether it was meant to kill those that it cut or merely instantly kill the flesh surrounding the cut she did not know. Either way it would serve well in the fight against Thanos and whatever protection the monster might have with him. Removing it from its case, she placed it on the table with the others awaiting a trip to the arcane division for priming.

As her eyes passed over the rest of the room, they paused for a moment on the entrance to the maximum security armoury and she wondered if she dared to take weapons from there.

The maximum security armoury was for the most dangerous weapons the Council possessed, both because of their destructive potential and because there were significant risks involved in their use. Some weapons were possessed by spirits that would try to take over the body of the wielder upon forming a physical or supernatural connection with the person holding it. Others generated a sort of energy that could potentially emit energy waves that would awaken demons best left asleep. Some literally rotted the body of the wielder to varying degrees, depending on how deeply the person drew upon its power. The list went on and on with each one being a very good reason why the condition even for the consideration of their use was the existence of a clear and present threat where failure was likely yet completely unacceptable. Even then the process for unlocking them required that steps be taken beforehand to minimize the potential collateral damage to both the Council as well as the world.

Did she dare risk it?

More than that, could she successfully remove them, leave with them and put them to use against Thanos before Robin got wise and tried to stop them?

_No. We put way too many safeguards and tripwires around them to make getting away with even one possible without every management level Watcher knowing it,_ she thought, dismissing the possibility of using any of those weapons. _Without an instant teleportation method to get us wherever Thanos is, stealing from the maximum security armoury isn't worth the hassle._

As driven to vengeance as she was, she didn't want to involve the rest of the Council in it.

They had created a true organization of protection for the peace minded peoples of the Earth and it had already proven to be better than the Old Council by far. Just the same, though, she had no allusions about what sort of danger she and the others would be braving in order to get their revenge against Thanos. The monster had the power to wipe out entire populations and probably destroy worlds thanks to the Infinity Stones and that made it stupid to give the bastard a large target to attack. If they assembled every seasoned Slayer, armed them to the teeth and then charged Thanos, she had little doubt that they'd lose scores of Slayers with every attack the bastard unleashed. While not an army, the Infinity Stones gave the wielder the destructive force of one and, without a means by which they could negate or deflect their power, evasion would be their only option.

Sadly dodge ball wasn't for everyone, even with Slayer powers, and with no way to predict the size of the area of effect figuring out how far away you needed to go to be safe was problematic.

It was far more strategic to limit it to just the four of them since, if they attacked from different vectors, there'd be a better chance of one of them delivering a decisive blow.

Sure, there was the possibility of an omnidirectional attack being unleashed to kill all four of them at once but she had a feeling that that would only be used as an option of last resort. Much like she suspected Xander had already figured out she believed that Thanos took a big risk tapping into the power of all six stones at once to achieve his goal. There was a strong possibility that either the murderer or the glove that housed the stones had been seriously damaged, with it not being impossible that both had been harmed. If that was the case then it was logical to refrain from doing it again since further injury, if not death, would be distinct possibilities. Assuming Thanos wasn't insane enough to not care about his own survival, the killer alien would stick to safer options unless pushed past the point of no return.

That just meant that they had to incapacitate him before he could muster the resolve to use all the stones.

That meant she needed to continue focusing on weapons that could do so quickly, with a high probability for success despite their lack of knowledge regarding Thanos' alien biology.

With additional criteria provided she looked down to the tablet in her hand, immediately adding variables to eliminate unnecessary options.

She was getting closer to completing her portion of the preparations and, when they next came together, it would be time to take the first step forward to showing Thanos that his actions will have bloody consequences for him personally.

VERY bloody!

* * *

_**The Room Affectionately Called 'The Holo-Deck'**_

_**The Next Day**_

_**Buffy'**__**s POV**_

"I've made sure we'll have our privacy," she said, turning away from the control runes for the room. "It'll take at least three senior level authorization codes to override it and only two are in the castle."

"Then let's get this done," Xander said, turning to Willow. "What've you managed to find out?"

"More than I thought and less than we need," Willow replied, moving to the central control pillar. "I wasn't able to get a positive lock on where Thanos is but I do have a decent heading. The best we'll be able to do is locate every world in that direction, focusing first on the ones capable of supporting life before moving on to the ones that he could use the Stones to alter."

_Not the greatest news but better than nothing,_ she thought, knowing this would mean more patience than she'd originally expected.

"How far along do you think you were? Three quarters of the way there?" Dawn asked, sounding like she hoped that the wait wouldn't be too long.

"Impossible to say. I pushed myself to the breaking point and if it wasn't for the Goddess Bast, I wouldn't have made it back at all," Willow replied, showing with her expression the degree to which the experience had shaken her.

"That was stupid, Willow," Xander chastised harshly, grasping her by the shoulder. "You're no use to us dead and any information you'd gained would've been lost."

"Revenge doesn't exactly help with rational thinking, Xander," Willow snapped, jerking her shoulder free of her best friend's grasp. "Besides, thanks to Bast I gained this!"

Willow touched the central control pillar and channeled her magic into it, causing the Holo-Deck to activate, energy rising up from the cracks to take visible shapes and forms. It took only seconds but when it was done she no longer stood in a grey room covered with magical runes but a green open field surrounded by warriors and the Avengers.

"I didn't find out about this until I'd woken up and recovered enough of my strength but I think you'll agree it was worth the risk," Willow said, casting her arm across the sights that surrounded them.

"Is this what I think it is?" she asked even though she was fairly sure her hunch was correct.

"Yes. A complete record of the battle between the army of Wakanda, the Avengers and Thanos," Willow replied grimly, with anger simmering beneath the surface.

So they would now witness how those who'd been in a position to defend the innocent had failed and perhaps through this knowledge they would find a way to succeed where others had not. A part of her simmered with anger and contempt at those she could now put a face to, as it was through their failure that so many had died. Whether she would hold them accountable once Thanos had been slain would all depend on what she saw in the next few minutes. If she saw that they had indeed done all that had been within their power to stop Thanos only to fall short, she would let them live, but she would never trust in them to protect the world again. She would watch them carefully and, when the stakes were serious enough, she would intervene herself in order to ensure that evil was vanquished.

If they turned out to be unequal to the challenge, or at worst incompetent, then she would see them pay for trying to handle the matter themselves instead of calling upon someone more qualified.

"Show us what happened," she ordered with angry focus in her eyes. "Show us how goodness failed."

With a severe nod Willow willed the environment around them forward and all of them watched with near inhuman focus to the events that transpired. They watched as obelisks of metal and technology fell from the heavens, either impacting on an energy barrier or into the forest outside of the energy field. They watched as hordes of THINGS came out of the obelisks, proving to be every bit as savage as any hellhound they had encountered but completely bereft of any survival instincts. They watched as the creatures pushed against the barrier, trying to get through only to fail again and again, with each failure costing them a score of their number.

_Cannon fodder. That__'s all they are,_ she thought as she watched the senseless self-sacrifice. _Animals bred only to kill and be sacrificed._

When she saw the creatures splitting up outside the barrier in order to surround it, she knew what was going to happen next. Contrary to what many of her teachers had thought in high school she was indeed capable of learning and not just the simple things, but also the more complex things like strategy. If the beasts were allowed to encircle the barrier, then when it fell the forces allied against them would be facing enemies on all sides. When added to that the risk to the people of Wakanda that could not be permitted and so a section of the barrier was dropped, allowing them to control the direction they came from. The fashioning of a bottleneck was a common enough battle tactic and, if done right, ensured that the advantage of their vast numbers would be mitigated.

Indeed the one dressed in some sort of cat man looked to have a good grasp of battle and led the charge against the oncoming horde, with his warriors as well as the Avengers close behind. The fight that followed highlighted the skills of those who'd oppose Thanos and she was forced to admit that they were respectable enough. However it soon became clear that for all that they were capable of the hordes of Thanos were too numerous as well as too lacking in the instincts that would've caused them to retreat. Before long all were fighting just to stay alive, never mind defeat the forces of Thanos and for a moment she thought that they were witnessing the final fate of the 'heroes'.

She was wrong.

Out of nowhere a stream of light shot down from the heavens, scattering those who were too close and, when it vanished, three beings stood where none had been before. One was a clothed raccoon with a sci-fi gun, one was a tree being of some sort and the last she remembered from the news clips that'd circulated four years ago after the alien invasion of New York City.

Thor, the supposed god of thunder and son of Odin, though they only had circumstantial proof of either.

She remembered discussing the matter with Giles years ago and it was her mentor's opinion that the Avenger called Thor was in all likelihood a descendant of the real Thor. They had seen enough during their adventures to know that the gods of the various pantheons did truly exist but were restrained by some sort of pact from getting involved in mortal affairs. True, there existed certain conditions or loopholes by which their power could touch the mortal realm, but it would never again be like it once was according to her Watcher. As for where this descendant of Thor had been since the good old days, Giles had only been able to speculate that another condition of the pact was for all demigods to relocate to someplace far from Earth.

The fact that this descendant had chosen to show himself on Earth in such a spectacular fashion troubled Giles, for either it meant that the pact of old was no more or an unforeseen loophole had been discovered.

A significant loophole that could lead to more demigods coming to Earth if they learned of it, as Thor's descendant obviously had.

Neither of them had liked the implications of that.

When Thor charged the forces of Thanos and she saw the power that was his to wield, she felt her earlier instincts confirmed as she watched him conjure lightning in a major way. In her time as a Slayer she had only seen such displays in powerful demons or in warlocks that possessed a significant reservoir of power. In the case of the former they were usually summoned to this dimension rather than being among those that called it home. As for the latter it required some sort of established set up as well as a means of both gathering the power as well as channeling it to the warlock that sought to use it. In the case of the Avenger known as Thor it looked like his hammer was what allowed him to call upon and use the lightning and he was using it to great effect.

Indeed, with the arrival of Thor, the forces allied against Thanos gained a second wind and began pushing back against the horde of creatures, the war wheels and the generals.

It was then that the scene shifted to some sort of caped artificial man who for some reason or another looked to be the focus of the enemy forces.

"Look at his forehead," Willow requested in a way that made it clear it was important.

Looking to the artificial man's forehead, she saw a yellow stone that glowed with light and at first she thought that it was simply some sort of indicator of power or function. However upon closer look a possibility occurred to her that shocked her to the core.

"An Infinity Stone!" she exclaimed, scarcely able to believe that it was not someplace ridiculously secure. "What the hell!?"

"I don't know the details any more than you do. Bast didn't show me anything other than this," Willow said, not sounding any happier than she was.

Watching the fight continue to unfold, they soon got to the meat of things when Thanos himself worked to get the stone in the robot's forehead. The Avengers arrived to stop him but the powers of the Stones quickly became evident when it rendered a giant Iron Man suit intangible and only allowed it to become solid in order to stick it inside a rock face. When a guy with a shield that she THOUGHT could be Captain America tried his hand at it a simple wave of power sent the super soldier flying. The cat-guy and some guy with wings tried their hand only to be completely outclassed before being harshly introduced to the ground.

Troublesome but not beyond her ability to get past, especially with support from her friends.

A guy in a normal sized grey Iron Man suit laid into Thanos with a barrage of weapons fire but she knew that that would not get the job done. In her experience, while modern weapons could be made useful if modified in the right way, it took something more impressive than what she was seeing to make a real difference. This was only proven when, with a clenching of his gauntlet, Thanos caused the colour absent Iron Man's armour to crumple as it was crushed by some unseen force. She was only somewhat glad that the killer of billions didn't go all the way but rather chose to toss his defeated foe aside once it became clear the tiny threat had been neutralized.

Others tried to fight but it soon became clear that, while skilled warriors, they were only human physically. It was not until the woman clad in red, who up until then had been trying to do something to the stone in the robot guy's head, fired an attack of her own at Thanos that things improved. THIS actually forced the butcher to raise an energy barrier to protect himself, implying that energy based attacks might be more effective than blunt force trauma or melee weaponry.

_Guess we'll have to let Willow soften him up first before we can take a more direct role in things,_ she thought as she watched the contest of willpower continue.

In the end the crimson woman's intent became clear when cracks began to form in the robot guy's stone and then, in a violent explosion, the sought after item was destroyed. Taking in all she'd seen thus far it became clear that this had been the goal of the Allies from the beginning: prevent Thanos from getting all the Stones by destroying the one they had.

Nevertheless she knew better than to feel hope.

This was proven to be true when green energy rings manifested around the gauntlet and before her eyes the explosion was undone, reassembling not only the robot guy but the Infinity Stone in his forehead. It was then to her anger that the last of the obstacles in the butcher's way was removed and all six Infinity Stones rested in the golden gauntlet.

Hope, however, had not abandoned the Avengers entirely for out of nowhere Thor struck, knocking Thanos back several feet and, when the purple monster attempted a counter attack, the so-called god of thunder launched one of his own. End over end the axe flew through the sky with its circular motion seemed to parry the energy of the gauntlet somehow allowing it to continue its descent towards its target. Thus with a final discharge of power the blade part of the war hammer buried itself in Thanos' chest a good three or so inches and, if her target had innards anything like a human's, serious damage had been done.

It was then though that the terrible moment happened and with it came a simple statement that she wholeheartedly agreed with.

"You…you should have…aimed for the head."

With those words Thanos snapped his fingers and a discharge of power that, even though this was a recording of sorts, she'd still swear she could feel rattle her bones.

This was it.

THIS was what had reduced so many innocent people to ashes!

The anger that surged forward within her almost distracted her from Thanos' exit as a blue portal framed by electricity-like arcs of energy appeared before swallowing the target of her vengeance. With this the recording came to an end, leaving her alone in the Holo-Deck with her partners in vengeance.

Thinking over what she saw, she could see that they were in a race against the clock. Thanos had been seriously injured by Thor and had likely only just been able to teleport away. Even if he possessed some sort of accelerated healing, it'd take time to return to full fighting form. If they attacked soon enough then, even with all the bastard's toys, the deck would be stacked in their favour.

"How soon can you start scanning planets for him?" she asked, intent on diverting whatever Council resources were necessary to speed up the process.

"Tonight but…" Willow replied, sounding uncertain of the path before them.

"But what?" she asked, not uncaring if her friend had a concern.

"Can we really beat him with what we have?" Willow asked, sounding like she was less certain of the answer to that question.

"It won't be a cakewalk but you saw how inured he was," she replied, not doubting their chances in the least. "If we move quickly enough and fight smart, we can do it."

"We could move like something out of a comic book and it'd already be too late," Xander said with a tone of finality in his voice.

"What?" she asked as her anger spiked for a moment. "Are you scared?"

"After everything we've seen and done, you ask that question?" Xander asked rhetorically as he glared at her. "All I meant was that whatever those green rings were could've been used to speed up his healing a lot. You saw how quickly it pieced that android back together."

"I also saw that metal glove of his get banged up after he ashed half the galaxy," she said, pointing out something else that was in their favour. "Bet he can't use the Stones half as good as he did against the Avengers now."

"Half as good is still enough to put him back at half strength now," Xander said, unwilling to give up on his position. "Add in the amount of time it'll take for Willow to find him and he'll be back to full strength by the time we lay eyes on him."

Her anger cooled at this possibility and she had to admit it made sense.

There'd been plenty of times when she'd seen damaged magic junk still prove capable of doing something and if Thanos did heal himself completely by the time they showed up… complicated was putting it mildly.

"So what do we do?" she asked even though she had a feeling already what Willow and Xander meant.

"If we can't get to him before he heals himself then we need a way to bring ourselves more to his level," Xander replied with a grim certainty. "We break the seals."

Memories of that time came back but more than anything the warning Giles had given them the day after seals had been successfully forged.

"If we do that, if we break the seals, there'll be no going back," she said, not sounding afraid but rather stating a fact. "Not to what we were or who we were, both to ourselves as well as to others."

"If it brings us vengeance then it'll be worth the sacrifice," Xander said with no wavering in his voice. "Countless souls demand vengeance, Buffy, not just… not just those we personally lost. I don't know about you but my resolve is not so weak that I'll stop just because I'll have to let go of some things."

"Do the rest of you feel the same?" she asked, looking at Willow and Dawn in turn.

"I couldn't live with myself if I let Kennedy's death go unavenged," Willow said, cracks of bloodlust in her voice. "And with Thanos still alive, it's possible he'll try something in the future. Even if he did kill half the sentient people in the galaxy, it won't stay that way forever. New children will be born, grow up and then have children of their own. Eventually Thanos or one of his descendants will use the Stones to do the same thing he did. We can't let that happen."

"All I care about is vengeance for my children," Dawn said in a chilly tone that gave her goose bumps. "If that means saying goodbye to being plain old Dawn Summers-Harris, then like Xander said it'll be worth it."

Hearing her sister so cold when she'd once been one of the kindest people in the Council saddened her but it also fed her anger towards Thanos since it was that monster that was responsible for it all. And for what? To fulfill some warped concept of galactic balance?! To hell with that! No one person had the right to decide the fate of everyone!

"Fine. We'll each put in for bereavement leave. Make sure you play up the angle that you need some time to grieve," she said, knowing that it was best to leave under false pretences. "If word got back to Robin or Faith, they'd try to stop us."

"No problem. It's been a while but bullshitting my way past problems is still one of my specialties," Xander said, a ghost of his previous lopsided grin showing for a moment, but there was a certain predatory edge to it that she almost missed. Almost.

With those words their path was set and their future decided.

Wherever Thanos was, she imagined a terrible chill had just gone down his spine.

He would not have to worry about it for long.

She'd gladly rip out that spine so that nothing would be able to travel along it ever again.

EVER!

* * *

_**A Few Days Later**_

_**The Highway Leading to Lake Sunnydale**_

_**Xander**__**'**__**s POV**_

_Looks like I made a clean getaway,_ he thought, looking into his rental's rear view mirror before glancing at the stone in the passenger seat. _Guess Robin's more perceptive than I thought. Not smarter, though._

All four of them acted according to plan, asking for time off to properly grieve, even going as far as to ensure that the Council would be able to operate well enough without them for a few months. Naturally no one questioned this and told them to take all the time they needed in order to recover from their grief. They split into three groups in order to divide any pursuit and, when he and Dawn arrived in America, they split up themselves in order to confuse pursuit even further. However, just as he passed through Cleveland, he'd felt the familiar touch of magic reaching out and touching him. He knew then and there that someone was tracking his movements but the four of them had anticipated this when they'd planned their departure. As soon as he'd felt the touch of magic he'd taken the stone out and spoken the incantation just as Willow had taught him when she'd given it to him. The magic in the stone was designed to obscure the wielder from locator spells as well as similar magic, but given that it'd been hastily put together it wasn't perfect. It followed the logic that the closer you were to the caster, the more details they would receive as to your location. However the stone's magic would ensure that unless he was within one hour's drive of the person casting the spell, they wouldn't get anything.

As a result he'd been forced to play a little game of keep away across the entire United States but, as of sixty minutes ago, he'd lost whoever had been attempting to track him via locator spell style magic.

The good news about that was that, while Robin might now know what state he was in, there was still quite a bit of land to cover for any pursuit force. Sure, the man might think of the Sunnydale Lake, but fortunately the place where he and the others were going wasn't all that close to the crater that used to be the Hellmouth of California. When the sealing spell had been cast all those years ago, Giles had insisted that they do it far enough from Sunnydale proper that the odds were low that anyone would stumble across the location. The old Watcher had even placed a dozen 'notice me not' wards around the entrance that would tap into natural Earth magic for power, so there'd be little need to return. As a last line of defence a spell was cast that would conjure a person's worst nightmare and make it as strong as the person's fear imagined it to be.

All-in-all it had been enough to keep anyone from getting to the focal point of the sealing magic for almost two decades.

Only those who'd been present at the time of the sealing would be permitted safe passage for, while the procedure had been performed for a reason, contingency plans were a staple of Scooby strategy.

With all these precautions, even if Robin and a pursuit squad of Slayers came after them, they'd arrive too late to do anything but see the consequences of what he, Buffy, Dawn and Willow had done.

Turning off the main highway he began to navigate the roads in order to bring himself as close to the location of the seals as possible. While before Thano's galaxy-wide act of murder he'd only ever seen himself coming back as an option of last resort, he'd still made sure it could be done. That meant keeping tabs on any new construction in the area as well as which roads would take him where he needed to go. As such he was easily able to chart a course mentally and arrived at a turn that would place him as close as he'd be able to manage in a car. Fortunately for him it wasn't much further and, unless he was mistaken, the others had arrived ahead of him, indicating that they'd been more successful in shaking off pursuit than he'd been.

Typical.

Walking through the bushes and between the trees he could almost visualize the changes that'd occurred to this area since he'd been there last and it indicated the passage of time well. Over a decade and a half of time was more than enough to see the vegetation cover up the dirt path that'd been there as well as the damage he'd caused trying to suppress his 'inheritance' from Halloween. He'd been so young then and so untested, forcing him to call upon all his willpower to keep from giving up his body to the echo of the warrior he'd dressed up as. In the end the sealing had succeeded in lifting a great weight off of his soul and, according to the spells conducted afterwards back at the library, there had been no lingering traces in his body.

_Should've known I'd come back here sooner or later,_ he thought looking ahead and spotting the entrance to the cave. _Stuff like this has a way of coming back to bite you in the ass sooner or later._

Entering the cave he saw flares lighting the path to the seals and was spared the trouble of trying to remember the route from this point on by simply looking for the next flare in the chain. Before long he reached the chamber to see both Willow and Dawn setting things up to break the seals while Buffy stood watch, catching sight of him almost immediately.

"Took you long enough," Buffy said, not sounding annoyed at his late arrival but rather curious.

"Sorry. Someone's been trying to track me down since I passed close to Cleveland," he said, taking up a position of observation in the cavern. "I needed to lose them before coming here. I think it's safe to say Robin knows something's up."

"Then we don't have any time to lose," Willow said, picking up a simple metal staff before beginning to drawn in the dirt beneath their feet. "Even if he doesn't know exactly what we're planning on doing, the fact that we were trying to pull something without telling him anything will be enough for him to look into things."

"The nearest branch house is in L.A.," Buffy said, going through the facts in her head. "If he uses the teleport rings in the basement, he'll be here in a little over an hour and a half. Barely enough time to get this done."

"Then help us," Dawn said, determined not to be blocked by the worries of others. "Do what me and Willow tell you precisely. Don't sacrifice precision for speed."

Without any need to debate the matter both he and Buffy did as they were told, taking ingredients from Willow and Dawn's bags before applying them in the proper manner. They were slowed by the fact that they had to be careful and not mess up any of Willows drawings but with the two of them working together the work was completed swifter than if they had simply watched. Before long the prep work was done leaving only the execution.

"Time to get this show on the road," Willow said before turning to the rest of them. "Get into position."

Looking at the drawings on the ground he quickly spotted where he was meant to stand and the steady steps of the others proved that they too knew where to go. Once they were where they needed to be they each began to chant words that they had long since memorized before destroying the source material so that no one else could break the seals. However the languages each of them spoke were different, even if when translated they were all saying the same thing. Before too long power echoed throughout the room with every word spoken and the drawings on the ground began to light up one pictograph at a time. As each one lit up, though, a shape began to manifest in the middle of them and, with the rising power it expanded from being a simple stone pedestal to something MORE. As symbols were carved into the pedestal by unseen hands, four three dimensional shadows came into being around it. Each one was different in size as well as form but they matched the four participants of the spell, albeit with some differences whose implications were decidedly ominous.

It was only when they each spoke the final words that the shadows gained a decided amount of details in a literal snap.

The one before him had crimson streaks, over the left eye as well as across the left side of the chest, and in its hands were twin blades with chains connecting the blades to the shadow's forearms.

The one before Willow had wild crimson hair, scarlet eyes that held nothing but the promise of violence and a symbol on its back that meant 'heaven'.

The one before Buffy had long wavy blonde hair framing its face, one eye silver while the other was gold, and a large claymore sword with a blue hilt in its hands.

The one before Dawn possessed golden armour from shoulder to fingertip, markings crawling over the torso occasionally conforming to the shape of muscles and glowing white eyes that spoke of an inner fire hotter than any natural flame could match.

For a brief moment he and the others hesitated but only for a moment because then the memories of those they had lost surged forth and with them a rage that burned all it touched to ashes. With unparalleled resolve he stepped forward, changing his posture as well as the position of his limbs to match those of the shadowy figure in front of him perfectly. As soon as the last inch of adjustment was successful the final step was taken and immediately he felt both his mind as well as his body come under assault. Most would resist this, whether it was to preserve who they were or simply to survive the onslaught many would believe threatened their very lives.

Not him.

Despite the pain, despite the foreign mental components seeking to connect with his mindscape and the shadow weapons turned the real deal, fusing to his arms via suddenly glowing red chains, he did not fight what was happening to him. This was why he'd come there, what he sought and he would not allow doubt to cloud his mind now or in the future.

Vengeance WOULD be his and he would destroy anything or anyone who tried to block his path!

* * *

_**A Short Distance Away**_

_**Inside a Large Black Truck**_

"Looks like I owe you dinner at Kristoff's," an Asian man said, taking in the spectacular images being generated by the crystal array in the ceiling of the vehicle. "I didn't think this would actually happen."

"I did. The whole world's still reeling from what happened and, considering the numbers involved, it was inevitable that someone close to these four would be ashed," an African-American woman with an expression that implied she liked watching the suffering before her said. "After that we only needed to find a spot to watch them break the seals."

"Still, you'd think that Rosenberg would've spotted the tampering we did to the cave's defences and the seals themselves," Mister Asian said as he watched each of the four undergo significant changes, both visible and not.

"Not for what we paid our mage division," Miss African-American said, implying that she would've been seriously annoyed if they'd screwed up despite being paid. "The modifications they made to the seals were subtle, slight and hidden within Rupert Giles' own work. Besides, any oddities Rosenberg might've spotted could easily have been misinterpreted as the normal wear and tear of time as well as proximity to the Hellmouth before it was destroyed."

"So when do you think our 'additions' will-" Mister Asian began to ask before events transpired to answer the inquiry.

Without warning the ordered integration of what the four founding members of the New Council had sealed away suddenly became an expression of a storm unleashed. Violently it broke through the roof of the cave where the seals were located, reaching out with countless arcing fingers that at first some might think were looking for something. The truth however was that they were gathering something.

They were gathering the lingering echoes of vengeful fury that had soaked into the entire area since Sunnydale had been founded to the moment it had been destroyed. Once they found what they sought the echoes were plucked up from where they had been found before being channeled back to the origin of the fingers, forced into the four being transformed. As a result of this process the power of four was growing beyond what the quartet had likely originally been expecting and it'd only get worse as time passed. Like a beast that would never feel the sensation of a full stomach, the fingers of energy would continue to extend outward seeking more feelings of vengeful fury.

While the modifications that had been made had originally been directed at echoes, the door had been left open to pull them from living beings as well. At worst the living people would merely lose consciousness for ten or so hours due to the mental trauma, while at the least they would lose the ability to feel the emotion for twenty-four hours. According to the mage division team they had done their best to ensure that the maximum amount of additional power would be transmuted into the four in order to make them as powerful as possible.

Or kill them.

Either outcome was acceptable to the Senior Partners of Wolfram & Hart.

Should the four be successfully empowered beyond their original Halloween inheritance, that would be when the final modification would take effect.

That would be when the leashes would be placed around their necks, making the property of the firm for the rest of their lives. It would be quite the catch, four champions of the Powers That Be, and with their power aggressive moves could be made against the enemies of the firm. For the first time since the dark ages they could weaken the forces of light while at the same time take out the more troublesome members of the supernatural community that threatened the preferred timetable. Honestly it was probable that the four would all be dead by the time Wolfram & Hart's objectives were completed but if some of them survived they would become lab rats. The firm's brightest and least moral minds would study the enhancements and alterations done to the survivors to see if they could be applied to other operatives of the firm. While old enemies would be stomped down, that didn't mean that new ones wouldn't rise to take their place given enough time.

It was always prudent to plan for the future.

"They're just about done," Miss African-American said, turning to a case within reach. "Time for us to get in there and solidify the firm's claim on them."

With those words the case was opened to reveal two arm braces expertly crafted with numerous precious stones embedded at specific points. One Miss African-American put on her forearm before passing the other one to Mister Asian, who did the same. With the arm braces the four would now obey any order the two of them gave with the only ones capable of overriding the orders being the Senior Partners themselves. It wouldn't be smart after all to allow two members of the special projects division to possess unassailable control over four such powerful beings.

They might get ambitious ideas that conflicted with the plans of the Senior Partners, both short term as well as long term.

Instead the windfall the two would bring to the firm would allow them to recover the ground that they had lost as a result of Angel's suicidal offensive years ago.

How fitting it would be that a woman the vampire with a soul deeply loved would be one of the beings who'd succeed in undoing the brooding man's hard work and sacrifices.

* * *

_**Within the Cave**_

_**Willow'**__**s POV**_

_Dammit!_ she thought as she fought against the chains she could feel wrapped around her soul. _This is what I get for being careless!_

She had been so focused on undoing the seals and completing the fusion of the fragments they'd broken off from themselves after that fateful Halloween that she had not bothered to look for hidden tampering. Even if there hadn't been so much as a single blip indicating that someone had touched the seals since they had originally been created it was foolish to think that no one had a clue about them. Now, thanks to her, their plan to empower themselves for their quest to gain a final vengeance against Thanos had been hijacked by parties unknown for reasons equally uncertain. She was going through her usual tricks for breaking an outside source's control over her but whoever had tampered with the seals had done their homework. The bonds wrapped around her soul were not so rigid that they could be snapped simply by pushing them past their metaphorical tensile strength but rather stretched without giving her any opportunity to slip free even a little.

_C__'mon! There's gotta be a weakness!_ she thought as she remembered some of the more complicated spells she'd managed to beat in the past. _No spell crafter worth their diploma would make something that could be used against him without a way of getting out of it._

"You can stop trying, Miss Rosenberg," said a woman from outside of her field of vision. "The adjustments we made to the seals were thought up with you in mind. Ever since you managed to perform your little 'unity spell' during the whole mess with the Initiative, we've been keeping tabs on you. Honestly the firm's been debating how best to sign you onto a lifetime contract for a while but it looks like we won't have to worry about a contract now."

Firm?

Wolfram & Hart!

The evil law firm had existed in one form or another for centuries, if not millennia, offering its services to anyone willing to pay their fee while advancing their own hidden agendas. The Old Council had made several attempts since its inception to knock the so-called Senior Partners down a peg or three but their successes, if the records were true, were far and few in between. Not that she was surprised given how the Old Council relied on the Slayer to do the heavy lifting while they sat back in relative safety. Field Watchers might've been a little more involved in the war but few of them could be considered warriors.

In more recent times Angel and the Fang Gang had locked horns with them but the most they'd been able to manage was a pyrrhic victory that resulted in the destruction of the L.A. branch of the firm. Since that day the New Council had butted heads with them a handful of times, usually coming out the better for it, but there was little chance the war between the two sides would end anytime soon. However after learning of the foul things Wolfram & Hart got up to, it'd been unanimous amongst the founding members of the New Council to oppose them whenever possible.

_Guess they decided to take advantage of Thanos' actions to make a big play,_ she thought, watching as a dark skinned woman and an Asian man stepped into her field of vision. _STUPID!_

"To be honest, though, my colleague here was skeptical that you'd come here, much less unseal the remnants from Mister Rayne's Halloween prank," Miss Dark Skin said conversationally as she inspected each of the Scoobies. "I, however, knew that you'd lose perspective and come here. You're still relatively young and, with so many of the Council Elders dead thanks to the First Evil, you didn't have anyone wise enough to know we'd try something here."

"Actually I'm more surprised their bodies are able to handle all the extra energy we poured into them," Mister Asian said, looking at Dawn's new form. "Records is full of reports of witches and warlocks trying to harness power like this and all of them end the same way: death. Some of them manage to get a few good moves in but the end result is they can't keep control of the power and it destroys them from the inside out. Very messy."

"I guess we can thank Janus for doing quality work," Miss Dark Skin remarked, coming to a stop. "Even if it was only supposed to be temporary and skin deep, the framework was solid enough. Now thanks to him and our contribution, Wolfram & Hart now have four enforcers to obey every order they're given. With the world in such disarray, it should be easy enough to kill half the firm's enemies before anyone figures out what's going on and another third before brute force isn't enough. It's going to be a VERY profitable year."

With a very good idea of who'd be on that list of enemies she redoubled her efforts to break free of whatever control spell Wolfram & Hart had placed on her. While she and the other founding members of the New Council might not be big fans of the 'Balance' the Old Council was so fond of protecting, they all knew it wasn't just them keeping the forces of darkness at bay. Every government division, every light allied organization and even the freelance demon hunters did their part to keep the world from being destroyed or lost to the darkness. If Woflram & Hart used the four Scoobies to eliminate even half of them, the balance between good and evil would shift decidedly in evil's favour. It wouldn't end the war between light and darkness but it would ensure that several generations would be needed in order to return the equilibrium to what it had once been.

**FOOLISHNESS!**

_What the-?_

**THEY SEEK TO PROCLAIM THEMSELVES THE STRONGEST YET ENSLAVE OTHERS TO BRING THEM VICTORY! UNACCEPTABLE!**

So even after all this time the echo of Akuma was still as strong as she remembered. She supposed that this was a credit to the power and the will of the master of the Satsui no Hado but it also meant she'd have a voice in her head for a good length of time. It had been one of the reasons that she had worked so hard with Giles to find the magic that could break off the Halloween fragment and seal it away. She had been teenage girl back then and there was in no way she could've been strong enough to keep herself from being utterly consumed by the male master of Ansatsuken, so she'd been desperate for any reliable solution. Now… now she was older, smarter and stronger than before, making this the chance to find out if she had what it took to harness the dark power without losing herself to it.

A gamble to be sure but one that she'd chosen to take in memory of Kennedy and all those lost.

_You're right,_ she thought to the echo as an opening move. _They sit in their offices, have their meetings and they think that this makes them powerful. Not one of them would survive even a minute in a real fight where they had only their own body and mind to rely on._

**THEY MUST BE PUNISHED FOR THEIR ARROGANCE!** Akuma bellowed within her mind as the first inklings of the Satsui no Hado began to emerge.

_They will be,_ she thought her feelings running along the same lines. _However we must be as an earthquake, power building beneath unseen by all, striking without warning but with devastating results._

Naturally this got Akuma grumbling since the echo was far more inclined towards simply using overwhelming power from the very beginning but the echo relented and followed her plan. Carefully, covertly and with the utmost care the darkness began to flow out from the depths of her soul, with her years of discipline she began to channel it through the veins of her new body. She kept it to the inner parts of her body for now, as far from the surface of her skin as possible, since the moment any of it became visible the agents of Wolfram & Hart would act to counter it.

"Hmmmm… looks cybernetic for the most part but definitely contains elements of magic," Miss African-American said looking over Dawn. "I wonder how the latent Key energy will react with the other power from the broken seal. Could she literally punch holes between dimensions? It would be interesting if she could. With enough time to refine the process the Senior Partners could launch sneak attacks and expand their extra-dimensional territory significantly."

"True. Personally I want to see how things go when the bio-weapons division gets ahold of her big sister," Mister Asian said, looking at Buffy's eyes. "A new form of demon-human hybrid with the potential to surpass anything occurring naturally. I wonder if they can manage something better with enough time."

"Of course they will. The arms race is never ending, with each faction only as good as the last creation they perfected," Miss African-American said as though it was a foregone conclusion. "As soon as they find a way to consistently recreate Slayer Summers' enhancements in others they'll look for a way to make something better. I suppose the ultimate achievement would be if they could graft the powers of something from the Deeper Well onto their agents without the accompanying psyche."

"Odds are we'll be dead and gone before they get that far," Mister Asian said, moving his perusal on to Xander. "I wonder if this one'll be able to get past the barriers to the pantheons. There'd be major bragging rights for the Senior Partners if that happened."

"True. Well we'd better get to putting the proverbial padlocks on them," Miss African American said, reaching into her pocket. "We might have them locked up but the Partners ordered some insurance made to make sure."

_Looks like the time for hiding is done,_ she thought, her blood veritably humming with the power of the Satsui no Hado. _Time to show these fools the dangers of overestimating their power._

With this in mind she ceased trying to keep the power within her from showing itself on the surface and, like a caged beast that finally noticed the door to its cage has been opened, the power surged. As she'd hoped and no doubt as Echo Akuma desired the sudden onrush of power was not something the spell the W&H agents had put in place had been prepared to deal with. No doubt it'd been designed specifically to counter her particular brand of magic as well as any associated with items known to be in the New Council's possession.

It was NOT designed to cope with a tsunami of power generated by the Satsui no Hado.

As a result the metaphorical chains that'd been so easily been able to maintain their grip against her magic were caught completely off guard. Before it could adapt or adjust to the energy, something possible with magic cast by the right person, the bonds snapped, returning to her the freedom that'd been taken from her temporarily.

Turning her angry gaze at the two agents of Wolfram and Hart, she could tell that they had sensed their little spell breaking but hadn't been given near enough time to do anything about it. However she could see that their cocky composure, while definitely cracked, was still reasonably in place.

Guess someone higher up took that as a challenge because a few moments later Buffy, Dawn and Xander violently regained their freedom as well. To say that the two agents suddenly found themselves in the cave with a pack of lions would be flattery to the entire lion species, for standing before them were four beings deadlier than any natural animal that walked the Earth.

And all of them were looking with deadly intent at the employees of W&H.

"We need the contingency team!" Mister Asian said after bringing a radio to his lips. "We need the contingency team NOW!"

"They better be one helluva contingency team!" she growled as her fingers followed the will of Echo Akuma and her new muscles tightened for what as to come. "Too bad you won't be there to greet them! Messatsu!"

* * *

_**Fifteen Minutes Later**_

_**Outside of the Cave**_

_**Dawn**__**'**__**s POV**_

The cries of her children were quieter now but she knew it was only a temporary respite.

As soon as the heat and excitement of battle faded enough they would once more echo in her mind once more to torment her.

Only once they had Thanos right where they wanted him would she know peace.

"Well, as far as a debut goes, I can't complain," Xander said, his voice as an exposed blade. "They're dead and we barely have a scratch on us and that's down to luck more than anything."

"Luck? Luck isn't something I'm willing to bet on," Buffy said with a near emotionless tone of voice. "If we want to beat and kill Thanos we need to be good enough to take down chumps like this without breaking a sweat. Compared to Thanos and what he'll have around him, these are school children with wooden guns. We need to do better. We need to BE better."

She could not argue with that.

These agents of Wolfram and Hart had been armed with common firearms, with a few spellcasters mixed in with their numbers. Basically the equivalent of a S.W.A.T. team but privately owned and equipped with the supernatural in mind. However the four of them were unlike anything the team of killers had been trained to fight, most likely because they'd had so little to work with from Halloween years ago. As soon as the Scoobies had figured out that what they'd experienced Halloween night had some lingering side effects they'd begun looking into the matter. When evidence surfaced that the inheritance was beginning to change them physically Giles had come up with a sealing ceremony that would break off the foreign elements, lock them away and enhance the regeneration of their natural selves. As a result W&H probably only had the loosest idea of what they'd be getting from interfering and had likely thought that this team of killers would be enough to put them down.

Clearly they were mistaken.

"Agreed," Willow said, looking down at her decidedly muscular arms. "I now have the power of the Satsui no Hado, the knowledge of Ansatsuken, but I have not earned it. I have made neither of them my own. Not really."

"We need to train and train hard," she said, looking down at the metal that encased her arms. "Push ourselves to our limits, to the breaking point, in every way we can think of. Only when we know what we can do and burn the fighting skills of the echoes in our head into our very bones will we be ready for Thanos."

"Do you have a place in mind?" Willow asked, sounding skeptical. "The power we have now, even if we only know the basics, aren't exactly subtle. People will notice when a forest is destroyed."

"As a matter of fact I do. It's called the Mirror Dimension in many arcane texts," she replied, remembering the day she chose to bone up on her arcane knowledge. "A parallel dimension that mimics ours but is distorted like a cracked mirror. You can do whatever damage you want there without harming a single blade of grass in this dimension. With the right person present you can even change the local environment to suit your needs."

"You sound like there's a catch," Xander said, frowning.

"We wouldn't be able to come and go from it like an apartment," she explained, laying out the drawback. "Getting into and out of the Mirror Dimension will get us noticed. Not precisely but the more times we went in and came out, the closer anyone looking for us will come to finding us. If we do this, go there, we have to stay in until we're finished."

Even if they did go in and stay in until they'd mastered what they'd taken back, those sorcerers with knowledge of the Mirror Dimension would know that someone had crossed over. They might not know where they'd entered beyond a rough region but that could still prove to be enough for a search team to find them if the pursuit persisted long enough. Still, she couldn't think of any other possibility that would work out as well. Like Willow said, people would notice if a forest, mountain range or random set of ruins wound up getting demolished by forces unknown. More than that, there existed both people as well as organizations that made a point of keeping an eye out for anything odd be it supernatural or demonic. They didn't just look every once in a while but kept a near constant watch on the Earth, so it was safe to say that Mantra, Satsui no Hado, demigod power and signs of superhuman physical abilities would ping on someone's radar for sure.

"Then we need to gather supplies. Food and water," Buffy said, her voice becoming completely emotionless as she became all business. "I'll probably need less than usual. The… memories make it clear that I'll only need food every couple of days and not much. Even if reality doesn't match up perfectly, I won't be as big a drain on food as my old Slayer self would."

"Shouldn't be too hard. I opened hidden bank accounts all over the world just in case the New Council's assets were ever compromised," Xander said, revealing his love for contingencies. "We empty one to get a truck big enough to carry the supplies and fill it up. Then we find someplace out of the way and hop through to the Mirror Dimension."

"Medicine would probably be a good thing, too, along with some sort of engineer repair kit," Willow said ominously, sounding like she looked forward to the training. "If we really go all out injuries are a distinct possibility. We'll only be able to depend on each other to handle those."

"A visit to a storehouse for paramedic supplies and a magic shop for the more exotic stuff," Xander said, no doubt mentally making up a list in his head. "Considering what we've become we should probably be careful. No way of knowing how effective it'll be."

Or how potentially harmful it could be to them.

Buffy after all was now officially no longer completely human, Willow had dark ki flowing through her, Xander had a demigod body and she was basically a cyborg. It was safe to say that they were the first of their respective kinds on the Earth and therefore, without proper study and experimentation, coming up with safe methods of injury treatment would be trial and error.

Not the best situation but neither was it serious enough for her to turn away from the path she was on.

"Let's get going," Xander said, hanging the chained blades on hooks that were built into the simple leather harness he wore. "When this bunch doesn't report in they'll know something's happened and send more."

"You assume they don't know already," Willow said looking up as though she could sense something no one else could. "Wolfram & Hart tend to monitor important operations like this, as well as employees above a certain level. Even if they don't know the specifics, another team, a stronger one, is on its way here."

"All the more reason to be someplace else as soon as possible," Xander said, turning in the direction of where their cars were parked. "We'll also need to cover up some. We don't exactly fit in now."

Looking at each of them in turn, she had to admit he had a point.

Buffy and Willow were the ones who could best pass for human if it came to it, since any oddities could be explained away as hair dye and costume contact lenses. For her and Xander, though, things were not quite so easily explained away. For her husband his skin was a colour of white that couldn't be explained away as not getting enough sunlight or being an albino. Anyone who looked at him would either assume he'd emptied several canisters of body paint or had rolled around in whitest flour that was for some reason completely sticking to his skin.

As for her… if she didn't cover up everything below the neck, there was no way she'd escape the notice of people be they commoner or VIP. Looking down, it looked like someone had fashioned numerous pieces of metal in the shape of human muscles, then either glued them onto or surgically implanted them into her body. No one could consider either possibility normal and, with the metal covering her arms from shoulder to fingertip, blending in was going to be near impossible.

"Good thing we thought to pack a couple of sets of clothes," Willow said, striding towards their rental cars. "Hope they still fit."

Looking at each of them as well as herself, she had a feeling a shopping trip would likely be in their future since their usual clothes might be a tad small for them right now.

_Well, this should be interesting,_ she thought imagining how they could pull this off with a minimum of unwanted attention.

* * *

_**The Scottish Castle HQ of the New Council**_

_**One Week Later**_

_**Robin Wood'**__**s POV**_

"Any luck?" he asked at the vid-chat image of Faith on the screen of his computer.

"Nothin'. I had three teams of Slayers do a complete sweep of Sunnydale and the surrounding area looking for any sign of them," Faith replied, sounding frustrated more than worried. "Only thing I do know is that someone did a clean and screen job. Damned if I know who, though."

A clean and screen job? While not entirely accurate, Faith's term basically meant that someone had done a scrub job on an area to remove physical evidence of something while the screen part meant someone had done the same with any magical traces. His first thought was that Willow had done it with the help of the others to cover their tracks but that possibility didn't quite fit right. While he was still in the dark about what the four of them were up to, he did know that they'd thrown enough roadblocks and smoke screens to imply that no one who knew them would approve of what they planned on doing. That being said, why would they bother to clean up if they'd already accomplished what they set out to do? Everyone in the New Council knew that, while they had a good pool of talent, no one had thus far surpassed Willow in the area of magic or technology. Dawn was a shoe in for leading the research division when Giles officially retired, despite her relatively young age. If they did something that required both of them then no one in the New Council would be able to reverse it.

He wouldn't let anyone even try since asking a student to outdo a master or mistress didn't turn out as well as it was often portrayed in the movies. More often than not only an exceptional student could even stand a chance of reversing their teacher's work and luck played a very real role in that.

However, if Willow wasn't the one responsible for scrubbing the place down, then who was?

"I'll dispatch a team of mage CSI's to your location. Have them give the place a once over," he said, deciding that the lack of knowledge had to be resolved quickly. "I'll also put all Council branches on the American west coast on alert for the four of them. They pop up anywhere, we'll know about it."

"People're gonna ask why we're putting out an APB on four of our own," Faith commented, sounding concerned about possible interpretations.

"We can say that there've been signs of unusual behaviour and we need to bring them in on medical reasons," he said, figuring it was the safest cover story they could use. "We'll tell them to be careful and not to be afraid to call for backup if necessary."

"Sounds about right," Faith said, sounding like she thought it'd work. "What do you think they're up to? It'd take something major for them to want to give their friends the slip."

"There's only one thing I can think of: they're planning on going after Thanos," he replied, voicing the only conclusion that made any sense to him.

"Bullshit! I get that B and the others are hurting, I would be too, but its koo-koo for Cocoa Puffs time to think they'd even stand a chance against Thanos," Faith said, denying that the people they knew would be so stupid. "Everything I've read about the E.T. says he's strong enough to hold his own against the Avengers! THE AVENGERS! Slayers and wicca might be badass but we're not THAT badass!"

"You're preaching to the converted, Faith. After over a decade of seeing what the New Council is capable of, I know what we can do but more importantly what we can't do," he said, recalling the various battles that had been fought and the enemies that'd been defeated. "Thanos… he's too far out of our league. He uses science and technology centuries ahead of anything Earth has and by all accounts has an army greater than anything we could hope to overcome with or without help. But it's the only thing that makes sense. All four of them lost someone irreplaceable when Thanos used the Infinity Stones and none of them are the sort to just let that pass without some sort of revenge."

"Damn straight. If they are riding the red eyed revenge train then we got find them before they bite off more than they can chew," she said, sounding like she considered that a likely future. "Hopefully the mage team'll be able to figure out why they went to Sunnyhell in the first place. The hellmouth's closed and everything worth something is smashed or under water."

"That we know of," he pointed out, knowing that, while they had become close with the Scoobies since first meeting them, they didn't know ALL their secrets.

Like everyone else he knew that people had secrets so important that they couldn't tell them even to loved ones for fear of losing them in some manner be it to enemies or to anger. Even though they had been through a great deal, with the four AWOL members he knew that that didn't necessarily mean that all secrets would be exchanged between them. With all of this happening he couldn't help but feel as though one such secret known only to Rupert and the four he now sought was the reason for the trip to Sunnydale.

"Keep me updated if you learn anything else," he said, deciding on a course of action that was sensitive. "I'm going to do a little snooping around here in the castle. See if I can't find a clue or three."

For a moment Faith looked confused but then a smile of saucy amusement appeared and he knew her mind had gone right into the gutter.

"Have fun raiding the panty drawers!" she said with teasing amusement in her voice.

Before he could retaliate for the comment the Slayer broke the connection, leaving him a little embarrassed but being used to her teasing he was able to let it go quickly enough. While she might've gotten older and a little more mature, there were still parts of Faith that wouldn't change. While he would've preferred that some of her qualities would've worn away with the passage of time, he knew from more than one example that Slayers were stubborn. Better to focus on what he could do than try to do something it'd probably take the rest of his life to alter.

Leaning back into his chair he let his mind drift to all the reports he'd read and all the people he had spoken to since Thanos committed the single largest act of murder the galaxy had ever known. It had taken everything the New Council had left in it to keep the regions they protected from falling into chaos. Compromises had to be made with the civilian governments in order to stem the advance of the unholy forces across the Earth but he was not ignorant of the risks that came with such compromises. Up until that terrible day, military involvement with Council business had been kept isolated to instances where neither side had the manpower or resources to overcome a threat on their own. Even then both sides did their best to protect their secrets and keep their 'allies' from seeing the entire picture that hung behind each of them. Now the lines that separated the New Council forces from the government protectors of each nation were thinning but not yet blurred. While some might think that this could lead to something good, he need only look to examples like Secretary Ross and his counterparts in other nations to see how bad things could go.

Every major power on the planet had just been assaulted by power they couldn't comprehend and had half of their populations turned to ash. This event made the likes of Hiroshima and Nagasaki look like pipe bombs going off and injuries that MIGHT require physical rehabilitation by comparison. If dropping a nuke on a country was enough to rattle the war saber then this was enough to get EVERY saber out of its sheath and pointed at whatever target was most appealing at the moment. Depending on who had been turned to ashes, people who once were obstacles to aggression and ambitious agendas might no longer exist to stay the hands of those who were morally flexible. Friction would increase between nations if not spark all-out war leading to countless more lives being lost.

For the New Council, though, the consequences could be even worse than those the countries of the world now faced in their efforts to keep the peace.

It was no secret that the forces of darkness that the Council fought against had agents and allies in the major governments of the world along with many important companies. They might not know who they were but they'd come across enough telling evidence to know that they existed and worked to undermine the Council's efforts. Fortunately they'd possessed allies of their own in similar positions who loyally used years of experience and government authority to oppose the traitors to the human race. Even if they could not put names or faces to their enemies in power, one could still, if they were careful, see the ripples the nefarious actions created. With wisdom and insight they had contributed much to the good fight.

Now, though, over two thirds of those government and law enforcement officials that the New Council had once received aid from were gone. Thus, like a bank that no longer had a functional security system, it was only a matter of time before something happened that would allow the poison of darkness to spread where before it could not have. Governments that the Council were on good terms with would turn sour, if not turn outright venomous, and access to law enforcement files would suddenly become much less free flowing. If they wound up being barred from entering nations that were more prone to apocalyptic phenomena then others, dangerous measures would have to be taken in order to protect the Earth.

Measures that could end up having the New Council labeled as a terrorist organization and abandoned by nations not wanting to risk being connected to such a label.

_Expecting the worst right off the bat doesn't do anyone any good,_ he thought, shoving such ponderings into a pit within his mind. _Better to move to prevent it from happening._

With that in mind he set to work carrying out the actions he told Faith about, after which he'd resume efforts to come up with counter ops to keep evil from gaining any new ground.

Needless to say one of the first things he'd do once Buffy, Willow, Dawn and Xander came back was chew them out for dumping the work of five people in his lap.

Only a damn good reason would spare them from that.

* * *

Note: Just to clarify for those of you who may need it here is the info on the beings that Dawn, Buffy, Willow and Xander have taken back into themselves from this BtVS reality's Halloween spell.

Buffy = Teresa of the Faint Smile (Claymore Anime)

Dawn = a female version of Asura (PS3 game Asura's Wrath)

Willow = a female version of Akuma (Street Fighter franchise)

Xander = Kratos near the end of GoW3 (God of War franchise)


End file.
